From the Moment We Met in 5th Grade
by MiraculousBell3
Summary: Marinette and Adrien used to be best friends in 5th grade. That is, until the day Adrien made the confession. Marinette pushed him aside until the day they receive their Miraculous. Seems like life gave Adrien and Marinette a second chance with each other. The only question now is, would things turn out for the better? Or for the worst? (Currently on the 5th graders part still).
1. Chapter 1

**Hey everyone! This story is loosely based off some of my personal experiences in life and 5** **th** **grade. After all, I'm still a student. (I should really add that to my profile). This doesn't really follow the story of how Marinette and Adrien originally met. This is before that. Enjoy! Reviews are very much appreciated! P.S I do not own Miraculous Ladybug.**

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Marinette remembers when she first met Adrien Agreste. It was last year in 4th grade when the new boy first showed up. But, she hardly paid any attention to him since he wasn't in the same class as her. After all, she was only in elementary school and she didn't have to worry about boys yet.

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Marinette used to hang out with Rose and Mylene. After all, they were her best friends and they were a trio. Well, they used to be.

At that time it didn't really matter. She had her friends and no one else had their friendship. The rest of the grade had their groups. The boys (Kim, Ivan, Nino, Max, Gavroche, and Nathaniel) were one of them. The other was the popular girls (Chloe and Melodie were BFFs. Although Sabrina would often be the third wheel trying to be in all the activities the pair did together.). _Poor girl_ , Marinette thought. While Melodie was somewhat nice to Sabrina, Chloe was usually the one picking on her. But, the pair had gotten along nicely with Sabrina, nether the less. But maybe that had to do with the fact that both of them were rich, and Sabrina was their personal servant at school.

Françoise Dupont Elementary was usually very peaceful. And at recess, Marinette's teacher, Dr. Macarrão, would often join her class together with the other teacher, Ms. Abacate, to do P.E. and other things. One of their favorite games to play was _Supertag_. It was very simple. One person would be it and pretend to be a supervillain with special powers. The rest were civilians. Once the 'villain' tags the 'civilian', that person would be it. Then, the civilian would turn to a supervillain and the old villain to a regular person again. It was always fun seeing what powers someone chose. One girl from the other glass, (Aurore?) chose an interesting power. _Power to control the weather?,_ Marinette thought back. Anyways, when Aurore was it, she often went after her best friend, Mireille. It was usually fun until one of the athletic guys got tagged. They would often "rough" things up and that's when things got… _unpeaceful._

After one game, though, Marinette was one of those hurt victims and had to sit out for a week. That's when she really noticed Adrien, though she didn't know his name at the time. He was one of those boys that didn't participate in Supertag, along with Nino (who also got hurt the first few times playing until he finally quit altogether.) Marinette was sitting on the bench observing a ladybug passing by when she saw Nino wave to her out of the corner of her eyes. He was sitting next to a boy with golden blond hair.

He saw Nino nudge the boy. The boy waved to Marinette as well. So Marinette tried waving back in the most natural way she could with a cast. Her other hand was holding the ladybug that landed on her hand up until a few seconds ago. It was a bit awkward from that point in the day until recess was finally over. But Marinette still remembered that moment crystal clear.

Looking back, it didn't seem like much at the time. People in elementary school didn't usually hang out with the opposite gender, so Marinette didn't really think about Nino or Adrien. She has Rose and Mylene, who were the sweetest friends Marinette ever had, even if Rose was such a fan-girl and gossiper on the latest romance developing in her grade. And both girls were often very supportive when Marinette went to design something. _If only these moments would always be the same and last forever,_ Marinette thought as she got tagged, _again_ , in Supertag.

"I'm LadyLuck and I shall now come to get you with my super luckiness," Marinette declared and giggled to herself as she struck a silly pose. It sounded a bit ridiculous, she knew, but there have been worst ones. She thought back to a few names. Even if Marinette was a giant Jagged Stone fan like Albert, _who in their right mind would name themselves Guitar villain?_ she thought.

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It was at the beginning of 5th grade that Marinette knew that something was already different. Much to her disappointment, Rose and Mylene weren't in her class this year. Marinette got Ms. Lupa, while her best friends got Ms. Cacciatore, but everyone usually calls her Ms. C. And everyone in elementary knew that being in different classes meant that over time, they'll drift apart and their friendship would slowly parish.

Well, at least that was what Marinette knew.

Her older cousin Bridgette told her all about the friendship progress, and Bridgette was always right because she was a student in high school who went through the same thing. This puzzled Marinette though because she knew that in middle school everyone had different schedules.

"Oh no, it's not like that," Bridgette laughed when Marinette asked her about it, "I had friends who didn't have _any_ classes with me one year and our friendship still ended up being fine. Besides, that was how I met Felix." Bridgette blushed and looked down at her feet.

Marinette remembered Bridgette and Felix together since…well, forever. There was rarely a moment in the week that those two weren't together.

But Marinette had that talk with Bridgette when she was 7. Bridgette was out of high school already, taking college in America. She had to leave Felix behind in France, but they managed to keep a long-distance relationship. Speaking of which, Marinette hasn't talked to Bridgette in a long time. It has been a longer time since she saw Felix.

Marinette signed as the bell finally rang, signaling the start of class. She walked in and spotted a few people who were in her old 4th-grade class last year. That included Chloe (ugh!), Sabrina, Ivan, Nathaniel, Albert, and a few others. She spotted Nino talking to the blond haired boy again from last year. Marinette looked around the room for Melondie and was surprised that she didn't see her. Since Chloe's dad was the mayor, Marinette was sure the two friends would have been in the same class, again! It also helped that Melodie's mom was a famous classical musician.

Across the room, she heard Chloe let out a giant whine to Sabrina.

"Melodie transferred to a private elementary school for smart kids! How could she do this to me! How could Daddy allow her to leave me alone! This is ridiculous, utterly ridiculous! Sabrina, do something!" Chloe huffed.

Poor Sabrina couldn't do anything before the teacher spoke.

"Hello, students. I'm Ms. Lupa. I know you guys are probably excited from seeing your friends from the previous school year, but please settle down. I know that I'm the new teacher this year replacing Mr. Byles, so things are a little new to me as well. Please don't try manipulating me in any way for being new," while she said that last line she was looking at Chloe. _So she knows Chloe's dad is the mayor,_ Marinette thought. But who was she kidding, almost everyone knew of the rich girl's status. And those who didn't know would learn soon enough.

"To get started I'm going to get you guys seated with my seating chart," the woman smiled. From the looks of it, Ms. Lupa seemed like she was in her late 20's. She had short wavy hazel hair and pale apricot skin. She was rather short for her age, but luckily 5th graders weren't that tall… _yet_.

Marinette looked at the classroom interior for the first time and noticed a few changes. This school year, the district added new modern buildings and desks. Ms. Lupa's was one of the new ones.

Aside from that, unlike the 4th-grade desk set up where there were groups of four, the 5th graders' desks were arranged in pairs of two.

"Over here would be Ivan and Gavroche. In row two there would be Albert and Nathaniel. Here…" Marinette stopped listening for a moment before seeing a new girl standing in the corner. She had hazel eyes and dark brown hair with glasses. She looked kind of lonely so Marinette walked up to her.

"Hi, I'm Marinette," she said. The new girl still didn't speak so Marinette decided to try harder. "It's okay to be shy, I'm usually quiet myself". She still said nothing and clenched her lunch box closer when Marinette noticed that it had the superhero's logo, Majestia, on it. Marinette smiled knowing what to do.

"Hey, is that Majestia?" Marinette asked pointing to her lunch box, "She's my favorite superhero and I especially loved her and Camilla Hombee working together in the 3rd series."

Her plan seemed to work as the girl smiled.

"I know, and I can't believe everyone knows Camilla is Victory. She's my favorite hero after Majestia," the girl agreed, "My name is Alya, by the way."

She let go of her lunchbox and reached her hand out. Marinette took it and smiled in return.

"Well, Camilla is the president of the United States, at least in the comic. And I guess the government does monitor her every move," Marinette added. Alya's shoulders dropped ever so slightly. _She_ _must be getting more relaxed around me,_ Marinette thought.

"If you're that into superheroes, we have this game called Supertag at recess," Marinette said and explained the rules of the game while Alya listened carefully, smiling more as Marinette got more into details.

Meanwhile, the teacher continued speaking, "Here would be Alya and Nino. And last but not least are Adrien and Marinette". The students started moving to their assigned seats.

"You're very lucky. Nino is a great person and I know he'll be the best partner you'll ever have in a while," Marinette said as she headed towards her seat.

"Not as good as a partner if I have you, though. Good luck with yours," Alya smiled, and Marinette returned it.

By the time she reached her desk, the boy called Adrien was already there. Marinette haven't interacted with him that much, but she knew that Adrien was super popular. Last year, Rose told her that he might have been secretly dating Chloe. That gossip lasted for a while. It certainly was interesting knowing that someone could date that little brat, but with Adrien's good looks, she wasn't surprised. And Adrien already had a fan club; over half of all the girls in their grade had a crush on him.

She took her seat next to him. It looked like he was reading something in English.

"Please turn to your partner and introduce yourself to them, even if some of you guys already know each other. I'll give you five minutes", Ms. Lupa announced.

Surprising herself, Marinette was the first one to introduce herself to her partner.

"I'm Marinette. What's your name? Wait-the teacher already said our names, silly me. You could introduce yourself if you like, not that I don't mind. I'm rambling aren't I- well if you just want to ignore me until we switch seats again I'm fine with that as well. I mean- if you hate me like Chloe hates me, I-".

She was cut off with Adrien's laughter.

"What's so funny?" she asked.

It took a while before the boy could respond, still recovering from laughing. "Your rambling is honestly quite cute-er, I mean sorry I laughed, it's just that the last part threw me off."

Marinette's eyes widened.

"You hate me, don't you? I'm so sorry, please don't tell Chloe. I know she's your girlfriend and everything, it's just that I didn't expect you to laugh and I was rambling and-", she took a deep breath, "I'm going to shut up now".

Adrien frowned and opened his mouth but the teacher cut him off.

"I'm passing out this worksheet that's titled "All about you". Fill it with facts about your life so I get to know all of my students better…"

Marinette sighed as she received her worksheet.

 _I'm in trouble, I just know it. I should have never mentioned anything about Chloe,_ Marinette thought. She sneakily looked at Adrien out of the corner of her eyes. He was quickly filling in his worksheet. Marinette sighed internally. _And whatever Adrien had to say is now, too lost,_ she added as she scrambled to finish the assignment as fast as she could.

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 **Thanks so much for reading. Again, reviews are much appreciated.**

 **The 4th-grade** **teachers (Dr.** **Macarrão and Ms.** **Abacate) were based on my real 4th-grade** **teachers, (Dr. Lencioni and Ms. Avorado). I just changed their last names to macaroni and avocado in Portuguese.**

 **The 5th-grade** **teachers were also based on my own (thanks, Ms. Wolf and Ms. Hunter). Yes, they were actually called the wolf and the hunter. Lupa and cacciatore mean 'wolf' and 'hunter' in Italian. If you guys know Italian and Portuguese and I got it wrong, you could blame Google Translate for that.**

 **As you all probably know, Melodie and** **Gavroche are from the quantic kids. Albert was just my own character, oh well.**

 **Majestia and Camilla Hombee/Victory are real characters from the** _ **Miraculous Adventure Issues.**_ **Of course, Majestia was introduced in the origin episode. Can I just add that Majestia's costume looks a lot like Wonder Woman's? And Victory's looks a lot like Captain America's. Yes, Camilla is actually the president of the United States in** _ **Miraculous Adventures.**_

 **Might try to do Adrien's POV in the next chapter. If you have any ideas for the future, let me know. 'Till the next chapter…**


	2. Chapter 2

**Here's Adrien's POV. Yay!**

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The limo pulled up in front of Françoise Dupont Elementary on the early morning of mid August. Before that point, Adrien had always been homeschooled. Adrien use to always look out the window and watched all the other kids his age go to public school. He never wanted to go before…that was until he saw a group of friends passing by in the early morning of May.

There were 2 groups of students with a teacher walking behind them. Judging from the direction they were heading, Adrien knew they were heading towards the park. And lucky for him, one of the giant windows happened to be opened. He dashed to the window after he heard a sound of laughter. He hoped no one noticed him; otherwise he was going to have to explain what he was doing 'ease dropping' on others.

They all looked like they were in 3rd grade. Or at least, that's what he assumed they were (thanks to over hearing mother and father talk about what grade he would be if he was in school). Basically, they all looked like they were his age. He spotted Chloe among those groups of students, along with Melodie. He was acquaintance with the girl, but since Chloe was in higher status (at least in Paris), Gabriel preferred setting up play dates up with her.

The last play date was a rather odd one, and it was only just last week. He didn't really know how to describe it, but Chloe acted a bit… _off._

Yes, that was the word. Every time they played a game she would always say these weird words, (usually lines in those movies he wasn't allowed to watch yet), and she pouted her lips more often and played with her hair more. Was it something he said? _Probably not,_ Adrien reasoned with himself.

And the compliments, _ugh_! Chloe knew how much he hated them, especially since he's been getting a lot of those lately. His mom said it would only get worse over the next few years. He wasn't looking forward to that.

The thing that bothered him the most was the opinion asking.

"Adrikins, don't you love this dress? Mommy just bought it for me before she went on her vacation. At least, from what Daddy told me, it's a very _long_ vacation. Doesn't it just match my skin tone perfectly?" she said and fluttered her eyelashes.

He just nodded. _And what was with the pet names?_ Were they playing another game that he didn't know about, _again?_

He shook his head from his previous thoughts and spied on the group once more. He quickly saw Chloe whisper to Melodie, before her best friend frowned. Chloe just smirked as she turned to the girl next to her. It was an orange haired girl with a white headband and a purple sweater. Chloe said a few words, (although Adrien couldn't hear), while Sabrina took a juice bottle out. He never got why Chloe started drinking those green liquids, although he saw his mom drink those all the time. He tried it once, and boy was it awful.

He observed silently as he saw the orange haired girl ran past everyone and uncapped the lid. _Uh oh,_ Adrien thought. Everyone moved out of the girl's way as she was about to approach a girl with twin pigtails. The girl sprinted faster as she reached her target. The poor pigtailed girl never saw it coming.

As soon as she reached her, the thick green goop dripped all over the girl's front of her shirt.

"Sabrina!" the girl yelled angrily.

Sabrina just circled back around to Chloe and Melodie as she gave each of them a high-five, although Melodie seemed reluctant.

"Chloe, I knew it! Did you tell Sabrina to do this on purpose?! I just designed this, are you kidding me?" the raven-haired girl shouted.

Chloe just laughed in an evil way. "But Maritrash, don't you know my juice would at least give your design some good _taste?_ At least I had the decency to make it better."

Melodie just laughed and said, "Good comeback." Adrien frowned. He never saw this side of Chloe before. He heard that together, both girls were troublesome, but he never knew what they did … until now.

 _Were they always this mean to other people?_ Adrien didn't like this, not one bit.

He turned his attention back to the ravenette. The teacher quickly came up to her and handed her some tissues. After it looked like the girl could take care of herself, the teacher started heading towards Chloe's direction.

The girl started wiping the green stain off her shirt, but it hardly did anything. He looked at the shirt's previous design, or at least tried too. It was a simple, yet complex piece. It had a ladybug on it with an asymmetrical design, layering one piece of fabric over the other. For a 3rd grader, Adrien had to admit, she got some skills.

He saw two people walk up to her. One girl had whitish-blond hair with a short bob, and was wearing a _very_ pink dress. The other girl had a bunch of braids with hazel and blond hair tied together with multicolored elastic bands. They seemed to be comforting the ravenette as she continued her poor attempt to save her shirt.

Finally, the pink girl said, "I can't believe Chloe did that again."

 _How often did she do this?_ Adrien wondered.

"She has been only picking on me ever since kindergarten. I'll be fine," the girl replied.

"Except the girl's dad is the mayor. She already threatened you once saying she would tell on you for putting soda in her juice bottle," multicolored braid girl spoke.

"That was Kim. Not her," Pink girl replied.

"Whatever, guys. Let's just leave it alone. Bad enough the mayor is that girl's dad. We don't need Melodie backing Chloe up with support from her mom, who I will remind you, is even more famous than Mayor Bourgeois nationwide!" the pigtailed girl explained.

With three final nods, the girls started moving forward. Adrien glanced back at Chloe who was getting yelled at by the teacher still.

He turned his attention to the guys for the first time to see what they thought.

"I can't believe it. Poor Mari…," said a boy with glasses and headphones around his neck.

"Well, what could we do about it? Chloe keeps tabs on every one of us. And with the support of Melodie and her dad, she would always get her way. Trying to help her would only make things worse because she'll blame everything on Marinette. _Right…Kim!_ " scolded the guy with a calculator out and thick glasses.

"Well, _Max_ , I was only trying to get back at Chloe. I mean, if putting glue in her seat and tearing her pants down in front of the whole class isn't enough, then what is?" the tall athletic guy called Kim replied.

Finally, the teacher was done yelling at Chloe. "Alright, alright. Enough of this! We're heading to the park to do our science experiment whether you like it or not. Those who disrespect others _again_ would be sent back home with a warning. Understand?"

The class grumbled and nodded. Then, they walked in single file line to their destination.

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So maybe watching that experience wasn't the _best_ motivation to go to a regular school, but from what Adrien heard, it seemed interesting. So naturally, he asked and begged his mom first to let him go, because she was more easily persuaded then his dad. And she wanted him to go to public school _long_ before Adrien wanted too. The moment that his dad agreed was the best moment of his life! Well, maybe except for that time he snuck out of the house with Chloe…but still!

It was decided that starting the next school year, he would be attending Françoise Dupont Elementary in the 4th-grade year.

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"Do you have your notebook?" asked Nathalie.

"Check," Adrien replied.

"Backpack?"

"Got it"

"Lunch?"

"Yeah"

"What about-"

"I'll be fine," Adrien smiled.

Nathalie nodded, knowing he will be.

Which was how the limo arrived in front of his new school. The driver, nicknamed the Gorilla, helped Adrien out of the car. Parents dropping off their kids, as well as students, stared in his direction. Adrien supposed he should have been used to it by now, but he wasn't. This was different, knowing that some of these kids could be his classmates.

In the morning, he begged to not take the limo, but Gabriel already made up his mind, and you couldn't talk him out of something once his mind is made up.

After just taking a couple of steps on the campus, a large man exited the building and started walking towards him. Adrien felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up and was relieved to see his mom.

"Welcome, to Françoise Dupont Elementary school, Mrs. Agreste. I'm sure you will see your son enjoying his time here. I'm Mr. Mirdrigo, by the way. Nice to meet you, young man," the principal said and extended his hand out for Adrien to shake, which he did.

Adrien liked the principal, he really did, but he thought it was unnecessary for a big welcome when no one else got it. He looked around. _Yep, people are definitely staring now,_ Adrien thought for sure.

"Follow me," the man said, and so they did.

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During the tour Adrien had a few questions.

"Mr. Mirdrigo, how come we get a welcome when no one else got it?" Adrien asked innocently.

"Well..uhm.." the man started, "we had an orientation, but you guys didn't come so.."

Adrien knew the man was lying, but he wanted to guilt trip him and have some fun. At least, that's how he watched his father do it in business. And Adrien was going to play the innocent child card to the best of his abilities. To adults, it just looked like curious questioning anyways. But little did they know…

Adrien began to talk. "I have a friend, Chloe Bourgeois; she never mentioned anything about an orientation. And on the school website, it said specifically that everything was going to be introduced to students on the first day so we didn't have to worry about anything in the summer."

The principal grew red, meanwhile, Mrs. Agreste was laughing embarrassingly.

"I'm pretty sure what Adrien meant was that he was _thrilled_ that you chose to welcome us over the other students, don't you Adrien?" the mother looked down out her son.

He smiled politely, "No".

The glared Mrs. Agreste gave him was all he needed to be told to be quiet.

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The tour took longer than normal, which resulted in him being a few minutes late. On top of that, the teacher introduced him like it was some sort of big deal. Adrien looked around the room hoping to find someone he knew. He heard that Chloe gotten a different teacher, which was sad because she was one of his only friends so far. Meanwhile, Adrien got Ms. Abacate. _I wonder if she knows her last name means avocado in Portuguese,_ Adrien thought, already knowing the language since he was three years old.

The worksheets were surprisingly easy, and Adrien ended up having extra time. So, he decided to create a list. _Ways to make friends…_ hmm, he thought to himself. He came up with nothing. He didn't get it, this always worked for his dad at some lame business meeting, why wasn't this working for him too?

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Recess came soon enough. Everyone was playing this game called _Supertag_. Adrien tried playing at first but gave up after not getting it. And nobody tried tagging him anyways. They were all going for their best friends, or the people they knew or hate. Since he was the new kid, he wasn't on the hate or acquaintance list yet.

He sat on the side for several recesses. Everyone seemed to love this game. Finally, a boy sat out. He seemed oddly familiar. _Isn't he the boy who usually gets hurt while playing this game_? Adrien thought to himself. No…it was something else. He observed the boy a bit longer until he saw him starting to fidget with his headphones.

 _I got it! He was the boy I saw last year in May, talking about that pigtailed girl_ , he realized. He scanned the crowd and saw her being chased by the pink girl. But, she gave up after a while, because the ravenette was too fast.

 _What was her name again?_ He thought as he started getting lost in thought again. He didn't see the headphone boy walking towards him. And when he did, he was startled.

"Woah, dude! Relax. I'm not trying to scare you or anything" he chuckled.

Adrien stared for a while. So the boy spoke again, "I always see you sitting out on the sidelines. Bummer. You know, Supertag is a super cool game if you don't get tagged by the athletes if you know what I mean," he said while pointing at a bruise he got from the last game.

Adrien blinked. This was exactly what he wanted, to make friends. Yet his brain and tongue fail for the one thing he needs most.

The boy chuckled again, "Name's Nino, by the way." Instead of a usual handshake, he went for the more casual high-five.

 _Do something!_ His brain told him. Meanwhile, Nino's smile was starting to slip. "Bro, don't leave me hanging."

So, Adrien finally got his hand to give a soft high-five to Nino. He went back to smiling.

"I'm sorry," Adrien finally managed to say, "It's just that, I don't know much about social interactions. And my only friend here is Chloe."

This time, Nino was the one to blink. "Then it's time for you to make some new ones. By the way, don't tell people you're friends with her, _especially_ not Marinette. Like, no offense, I know she's your friend, but do you know what that brat did to her? I won't say anything 'cause Mari's gonna kill me if I did, but there was this certain glue incident…"

 _So, that's what her name is!_ Adrien grinned. Nino just helped him without realizing it.

"I've heard," was all he said.

"Let me guess, Chloe told you," Nino said as his eyes widened and glanced at something, or rather, _someone_ , behind him. "Speaking of which.."

"Adrikins!" Chloe squealed as she threw her arms around him. Adrien sighed. Of course, Chloe would bother him eventually. He was just glad that Nino was cool with all of this and still wanted to be his friend.

"Why are you sitting on this bench with this…loser," she gagged and made a face, "come play Supertag with Melodie and me." She tugged on his arm.

"Chloe…" his voice trailed off as another voice pierced through the air.

"Hey!"

Chloe and Adrien both turned to the sound of the voice. It was Marinette.

"Chloe, leave the poor guy alone. Anyone, even a person with an IQ as low as yours, could tell that he isn't interested!" the ravenette smirked.

Chloe glared angrily at the French- Chinese girl.

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng, you are so going to pay for this," Chloe growled as she stomped away.

After she was gone, Marinette awkwardly waved at them before going back to resume the game.

"Wait, Marinette Dupain-Cheng? Like in the Dupain-Cheng bakery, _that_ Dupain-Cheng?" Adrien asked.

Nino shrugged and said, "Yeah, the bakery owners are her parents," he grinned before adding, "If you're lucky and you happen to be close friends with her," he pointed to himself, "then maybe she'll just _happen_ to have a few _extra_ pastries."

Adrien smiled. Being friends with Marinette already seemed like a good idea before knowing that her parents owned the best bakery in all of Paris.

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After a month of sitting on the sidelines talking to Nino, Adrien felt pretty good. He had a cool friend, and sometimes, Nino would share some of Marinette's pastries with him. Without her knowing, of course, that would be rude. Nino said Marinette didn't really care but Adrien didn't want to seem like he wanted to be friends with her later for the baked goods.

And so far, Chloe's threat from the previous month didn't happen so far.

Right before recess, Adrien sat on the sidelines, _again_ , waiting for Nino when he saw Chloe out of the corner of his eye. She was talking to Robert, a jock that was both loud and a jerk. A minute later he flashed a wicked grin just as the games were about to begin. This time, however, Chloe pulled Melodie and Sabrina out with her. They both frowned before she whispered something to both of them. They nodded and joined her on another bench to watch the game. She saw Adrien watching her and sent him a wink and pointed at the game, just as Nino sat down next to him.

"Hey dude, what's up?" he said. And Adrien told him everything. He cringed and looked at the game. It appeared that Robert was running slower than normal. Albert, who was it, saw him and tagged him before Robert had a chance to run away.

"I am the Avenger. I shall destroy and avenge anyone who has wrong the queen bee," he smirked. Everyone started whispering, who was the queen bee? But Adrien and Nino knew the answer to that.

He watched helplessly as he ran after Marinette. She turned around and started running towards the trees. She was fast, but Robert was faster. Just before she could run into any trees she started to slow, expecting Robert to slow down too. He didn't. The momentum made him crash into her. To steady himself, he grabbed and pulled her towards his direction. Unfortunately, the trees were too close. The force pushed her shoulder into the hard bark of the tree. She tripped over her own feet, scraped her knees and collapsed to the ground just as the teachers saw what was happening.

Adrien glanced at Chloe's direction as Robert ran towards her. They gave each other a fist bump. Melodie was frowning the whole time. Even though the two were best friends, they didn't exactly see eye to eye.

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The following recess, Marinette had a cast. _That fall did seem like it hurt a lot,_ Adrien reasoned. He felt bad. He knew Chloe was up to something, yet he did nothing. Now Marinette's shoulder was mending. And her scrapes and bruised were healing as well.

He sighed as Nino joined him.

He saw Adrien cast a look at Marinette sitting on a bunch besides them. Close, but far enough.

"Don't feel guilty dude. Chloe's always trying to do this," Nino said hoping to make his buddy feel better.

"Except, she would not ever know that it was on purpose. She'll always think of this as an accident," he sighed.

Nino thought for a moment. "You're a famous child model, you got this. You just need to make the first move towards forgiveness." He waved to Marinette.

At first she didn't notice, but she waved as best as she could with a cast. It looked like she was holding something with her other hand. Nino nudged Adrien to wave too, so he did. It was an awkward recess after that with a lot of waves and friendly smiles.

"You're right, dude. But Marinette would forgive you, even if she doesn't know about this incident." Nino waved as he headed back to his class.

Adrien rarely interacted with Marinette for the rest of 4th grade. Partly because of guilt and because he had no good reason to talk to her. But somehow, word got out that he was friendly with Chloe. Almost _too_ friendly.

 _I knew I should have told Chloe to back off_ , thought Adrien after Nino told him about some rumors going around between the two of them.

Adrien sighed, it was going to be a long year.

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By 5th grade, the rumors have died down. He also started hanging out less with Chloe, and more with Nino, which he was happy about. His teacher this year was Ms. Lupa. Which was great for him because he found out he had the same teacher as Nino, so that was cool.

He entered the class as he scanned the crowd for people he knew. He saw Sabrina and Chloe together, but no Melodie. Just then, Chloe let out a giant whine after reading something on her phone. "Melodie transferred to a private elementary school for smart kids! How could she do this to me! How could Daddy allow her to leave me alone! This is ridiculous, utterly ridiculous! Sabrina, do something!"

But then the teacher started to speak. To be honest, he hardly paid attention because his eyes landed on someone else. Marinette seemed like she was talking to a new girl who looked somewhat like Nino.

Adrien blushed. He was going to die if anyone found out, including Nino, that his mind was occupied by the thoughts of Marinette the whole summer. He didn't know why, but she was always just…there. Sometimes he would dream about her too, like getting to know her better.

He wiped those thoughts from his head as the last of the seating chart was called out.

"Here would be Alya and Nino. And last but not least are Adrien and Marinette". The students started moving to their assigned seats.

 _Oh no, I was trying to forget about her, not have her as my partner!_ He thought. But, he decided to act cool and say nothing. To look like he was busy he pulled out a book, which happened to be in English. He didn't mind, but it was actually a guide on her to speak English, in the same language. Hopefully, she wouldn't notice. _And who wrote this book?_ He questioned.

She sat down as Ms. Lupa made an announcement. He wasn't paying attention because Marinette was there, but oh well, he would just have to learn how to deal with it.

"I'm Marinette. What's your name? Wait-the teacher already said our names, silly me. You could introduce yourself if you like, not that I don't mind. I'm rambling aren't I- well if you just want to ignore me until we switch seats again I'm fine with that as well. I mean- if you hate me like Chloe hates me, I-".

Adrien started to laugh a genuine smile. _Why does she have to be so cute?_ He wasn't at a crushing stage yet, but a feeling that he wanted to get to know her better.

After a while, he responded, "Your rambling is honestly quite cute-er, I mean sorry I laughed, it's just that the last part threw me off."

 _Why did you say she was cute out loud? Probably thinks you're weird,_ Adrien told himself. God, he was an idiot.

Marinette's eyes widened.

"You hate me, don't you? I'm so sorry, please don't tell Chloe. I know she's your girlfriend and everything, it's just that I didn't expect you to laugh and I was rambling and-", she took a deep breath, "I'm going to shut up now".

Adrien frowned. Chloe wasn't his girlfriend, and he would like to keep it that way. Turns out the rumors hasn't gone away _quite_ yet.

He opened his mouth to reply, but the teacher cuts him off.

 _Dang it, I'll have to tell her next time. Before the rumors get more confused and mixed up,_ Adrien thought.

He received the worksheet they were supposed to do, and started filling it out as fast as possible. Out of the corner of his eye, he looked at Marinette. She was staring at the sheet, but not filling it out yet. Maybe she was lost in thought. Adrien sighed as he continued, hopefully done by the time Marinette was.

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 **Thanks for reading! Please review, and comment anything you might like to see in the future. Remember, they're still in 5th grade right now. It's also 3 am, I should go to sleep.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Need more ideas for scenes in the future. I know what I want to do; I just need small scenes for lengthy, decent quality chapters. Hopefully, I'm doing okay so far. Enjoy!**

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Marinette POV:

The first few days in Ms. Lupa's class wasn't that bad. Other than learning more about math, science, and writing fun prompts, it wasn't a particularly hard year. And even if Marinette didn't really care that much about writing essays or summaries of stories, she loved doing the morning journals.

Since the second day of school, Ms. Lupa bought each of her students a new composition notebook for these morning activities called 'daily journal prompts'. It was fairly simple: each new day there was a new question, and you would write your response on the next available page etc.

One of those questions was _who are your best friends/ friend? Do you think that your friendship from last year would change from the year before? If so, why?_

Marinette thought this was an easy question at first until she thought about it more. Something in her friendship with Mylene and Rose _changed._ And Marinette partly blamed it on the new girl Juleka.

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It was only a few days ago when she first met the new girl. Marinette was so excited to see her BFF's again, especially since they didn't have the same teacher this year. Before that, the trio _always_ managed to have the same class. That was one of the key reasons that made their friendship so strong.

When the bell rang at 10:30 AM, all the kids quickly went to the play area to catch up with everyone. Obviously, Supertag was going to be one of the games being played today. Marinette silently sat patiently at one of the trio's favorite benches, while she waited for the girls to arrive. After a few minutes, they came… but with someone else.

The girl had a Goth sort of vibe around her. Unlike the kids here, the thing that made her stand out was the purple streaks in her hair. Marinette gasped. Sure, when she helped out at the bakery she saw costumers with colored hair, but no one else in their grade dyed it a _non-natural_ color. And another thing was the makeup. She was wearing _makeup_ in 5th grade! The only people Marinette knew that wore makeup were Chloe, Melodie (although she moved), and somewhat Sabrina. Plus, the girl was quite tall for her age, wearing dark clothes. The girls waved to Marinette, and she politely waved back, still puzzled by the newbie.

"Marinette, this is Juleka. Juleka, meet Marinette," introduced Rose.

Both girls politely shook hands while saying greetings of _nice to meet you._

"Juleka is a student that transferred from Bordeaux. She got Ms. Cacciatore too. Isn't that cool?" Mylene said excitedly, "and originally she was supposed to be in 6th grade, but she had an accident when she was two doing…what did you do exactly?" The girls turned to face Juleka, but she hardly did anything with all the attention was on her.

"My brother and I were playing around on our scooters. He was teaching me how to do a triple barspin when I fell and twisted my arm, but it's cool now," Juleka stated in a monotone kind of voice. Marinette simple nodded while the other girls looked at her in awe.

"A triple barspin must have been pretty hard. It wasn't really worth it for missing a year of school," Rose said sympathetically. Mylene nodded in agreement.

"A barspin is actually pretty easy," Juleka added, "I mastered other tricks over the years. I could do the canon ball to finger whip now. There's a skate park not far from her. We could go there after school, and I could show you some tricks if you like." Rose and Mylene started to sequel and talk about how 'cool' they'd be if they went there, meanwhile Marinette shook her head.

"Shouldn't we ask our parents before going?" she questioned. Mylene and Rose stopped their happy dance and looked at her. _Surely after my statement, they are bound to know how much trouble we'd get in,_ Marinette thought. Unfortunately, it was Juleka who answered her.

"I'm allowed to go on my own. Besides, my brother Luka and his friends would be there, so we'd be under supervision anyways. It's okay if you can't go Marinette, some parents are overprotective over their little kids," she stated. To Marinette's surprise, the other girls nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, Marinette. Juleka is right. We're old enough to make our own decisions and we'd _technically_ be under supervision. You should let loose for once," Rose stated. Mylene politely said nothing, being the sweet friend she was. Although, judging from her expression it was clear she mutely agreed with Rose.

Something inside Marinette took over. A new type of anger formed in her, "Please, I'm not a little kid. And I could go on my own without supervision. I was just making an excuse for Mylene and Rose in case they needed to ask."

"Well…judging from your tone are you sure that excuse was for us?" Mylene quietly questioned, "It's okay if you still need to ask your parents Marinette." The so-called girl turned as red as a tomato.

"I'm FINE!" she insisted. As soon as she said these words she wished she took it back. _Mama and Papa are going to kill me if they find out about this!_ Marinette silently squeaked.

The girls nodded an okay. "See you after school then," Juleka said. The bell rang signaling the end of recess.

 _Drat! The talk with Juleka took all recess!_ Marinette thought bitterly. _Worse of all, I didn't even get to play Supertag!_

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Later that afternoon Marinette was dreading the last bell. Usually, she would be delighted for school to be over, but not this time. There were 20 minutes left of class, and they were focusing on art, which was Marinette's favorite subject. Even that was not making her mood feel any better.

As if sensing her distress her partner spoke up.

"Marinette, are you all right? You look a bit pale," he said. With a pause, he added, "and this is art. You said you love _art_ when we shared our "All about you" worksheet to the class." His brows furrowed in concern, which was really sweet, even if they haven't been partners that long. Sighing, Marinette decided to tell Adrien the truth. After all, he was the one who asked about it, and she was feeling stressed with her current situation. When she told him everything, Adrien was looking at her questioningly.

"If you don't want to go you don't have too. Plus, you've mentioned that you might get in trouble. And you don't seem like the type of person who would rebel and hang at a skate park anyways," Adrien advised.

What Adrien said was quite true, but Marinette started feeling a bit angry. _You don't seem like the type of person…_ he told her. That was awfully a lot like what Juleka told her today. _Ugh! If only Juleka didn't go to our school, I wouldn't have gotten into this mess!_

"Well…I don't need your advice! In fact, I love going to skate, so don't tell me who I do or don't seem like!" she snapped.

Adrien seemed surprised, but then he bitterly said, "Fine. Go to the skate park then…"

"I will!" Marinette growled.

The final bell rang, and both partners walked out the door.

Marinette walked to the front of the school and waved to the girls. She didn't miss the way Adrien rushed passed her to get to his driver. Or the way he paused to look at her before entering the vehicle. But she'll prove him wrong…or at least so she hoped.

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Walking to the skate park, or in Juleka's case, _skating_ to the park was a breeze. Marinette didn't miss the way Mylene's or Rose's eyes lit up at the sight of all the ramps and skaters doing their thing performing cool moves and tricks.

"There's my brother," Juleka said pointing to a group of guys. All of them either had a bike, scooter, or some kind of skateboard, Marinette noted. But otherwise, the place was quite impressive in size and popularity. While Juleka's brother and friends had a gothic or street look, Marinette noticed the other side of the ramp had a bunch of guys with formal attire. _Probably a bunch of rich kids with bad attitudes,_ she reasoned. It was obvious Juleka belonged to the left side of the ramp with the street kids, but Marinette realized that neither her, or Rose, or Mylene looked like they belong there, or the other side in fact.

Noticing her distress, Juleka pulled out 3 gothic t-shirts, probably her own, out of her backpack.

"Put them over your outfits," Juleka instructed, handing a shirt to each of them. She pulled out another, tiny bag out of the large backpack. She pulled out a black color pencil and moved her hand to Rose's face.

"Is that makeup?" Marinette finally realized. The Goth nodded as she applied a thin line over both of Rose's eye lids and moved over to do Mylene. Marinette was next.

"Can you grab the spray bottle out of the bag?" Juleka asked. Marinette got the bottle out and gave a questioning look to Juleka, who said a quick thank you, and grabbed the can. Without asking, she grabbed some strands of Mylene's hair and sprayed it. Out came an array of sea blue as it stuck on to her hair. Much to Marinette's delight, Mylene let out a surprised shout, "What did you do?" as she glanced down and her braids. Juleka shrugged as she grabbed a new bottle from her bag and went to Rose. She hesitantly ducked out of the way before Juleka could do anything with her blond locks.

"Don't worry. The dye comes out when you shower," she tried to reassure the girls. The only one left to do was Marinette. Juleka approached her slowly, seeming to sense she was the most hesitance one out of all of them.

"Fine," Marinette finally said, "but only the makeup". And so Juleka made sure that Marinette's look was the most intense out of all of them. And it worked. Surprisingly, just as the girls were done, a bunch of people's phone rang, signaling an alarm of some sort. All of a sudden, both sides of the ramp met in the center.

"Let's go," Juleka said moving towards the center like everyone else. The girls followed, since they were unfamiliar with the park itself. Seeing everyone together, the rich boys barely outnumbered the street boys by three, that's including Marinette, Rose, and Mylene. Wait… Juleka didn't bring them to a fight, _did she?_ It certainly did help that the girls just happened to be there, that day. And they were dressed as Goths. And the Goths made Juleka's group look like they have more people than they did originally.

Juleka finally found her way to her brother and gave him a fist bump.

"What are we up against?" she asked.

"Most of them are in middle school. Some are freshmen. The older ones don't want to participate. And some grade school leveled kids as well. Did you bring more people?" Luka asked.

"Yeah," Juleka pointed to Marinette and the others, "but they can't skate at all."

 _How dare her!_ Marinette thought. She looked back at Rose and Mylene who seemed equally as shocked.

Just then, a formal rich kid took the stage. He was definitely older than 5th graders. "As you know, the Streets vs. the Jaguars (named after the expensive cars) have been battling the other group for the past few months." A murmur went through the crowd, "But that all ends today!" The guy continues. Out of the corner of her eye, Marinette sees an older Streeter stand up on an elevated ramp and spoke, "This is the final battle for the park. Losers have to go leave the park and skate somewhere else." The crowd's murmurs turned to angry whispers and soon people were shouting.

"This contest requires the most skilled skaters to show off their moves to the other group. And we are very fortunate to have these two judges, judging us today!" said the Jaguar. A cheer went up from the crowd.

"Please welcome…professional skateboarder from the 1980's, Lance Mountain and retired figure skater from South Korea…Mlle Yuna Kim!" said a Streeter.

Juleka cheered. _That double lying two-timing snake!_ Marinette thought. Bad enough they had to participate in a fight but in front of professional athletes? That was too much. Meanwhile, skaters from both sides started doing a series of tricks. But Marinette wanted to leave at the perfect moment. Finally, it was Juleka's turn to perform.

Marinette tapped Rose and Mylene on the shoulder. "Let's get out of here, "she told both of them. They followed her reluctantly until a Jaguar found them.

"Look at what we have here," said a Jaguar no older than a 6th grader, "looks like the defeat of some Streeters is right at our feet." He smirked but all of a sudden, Luka came into the picture.

"Just leave them alone, okay man? I mean, I never have seen them before in my life," Luka told him making dramatic gestures along the way.

The other boy rolled his eyes, "So now you get fake skaters for your side. No wonder the Streets are so _lame._ " Then, he pushed Luka. The next few bits were ugly, but you know. And at the end of it, the professional athletes were gone. But the fight was still going on. Freshmen against freshmen. 6th graders against their own. The old trio managed to escape, except someone managed to grab on to Marinette's hair. _I'm getting a haircut when this is all done_ , she noted. The kid kicked her hard. But at least he was in the same grade as her, and not some giant middle-schooler who could easily crush her. _Another note, get self-defense classes_ , she added. Adrien was right, she realized. _Why am I thinking of him now?_ She thought. The guy was getting uninterested in the lack of fighting. He was about to give one last punch when someone saved her.

Marinette barely saw who it was, but it wasn't any Street or Jaguar. Instead, she saw someone she never expected to see, and her heart filled with relief and joy as the person finished returning the other guy's favor.

"Are you okay, Marinette?"

Marinette smiled and was so happy they came when they did.

She threw her arms around their neck.

"Thank you so much, Alya," she sobbed into her shoulder.

"No problem, girl. Now give me the deets on what happened," she said as they started walking to the Dupain-Cheng bakery.

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After Marinette told Alya her story, the girl felt sympathetic towards the ravenette.

"You don't have to do anything you don't want to. You know, I'll never let anything like that happen to you right," Alya stated. Marinette nodded. Alya had saved her after Marinette made friends with her… only to go back to Rose and Mylene instead. Gosh, she was a horrible person.

"How did you know that I was at the skate park anyways?" Marinette asked. Alya looked down at the ground but finally sighed and replied.

"Adrien texted me. I was pretty lonely being the new kid with no friends, so he came up to me and told me he dealt with the same thing before. Turns out, we have a bunch in common. That was how he knew I was at the book store looking for new comic books. It was close to the skate park," she said. Marinette felt bad about how she ignored Adrien's advice. She would have to apologize tomorrow. He was only trying to help.

Dealing with her parents was a different story. Turns out (surprise, surprise) they were worried sick when she didn't walk home after school. It was only a block down, but her parents trusted her. Finding Marinette bruised with a black mark on her cheek with makeup was something they weren't expecting to see. After telling her parents the whole story, they forgave her…reluctantly. But, they also told her to apologize to Adrien. _I guess, I really was a jerk,_ she thought.

She asked her parents about getting a haircut and taking self-defense lessons, which they happily agreed too. (Because no later after they agreed, the skate park fight was all over Paris news). Sabine and Tom actually took things better than Marinette expected too, but they banned her from makeup until high school, and she was getting grounded for 2 months. Oh well, she deserved it, she guessed.

To make up for everything, she was going to help with the bakery more on Saturdays. And she hurriedly made some cookies for the next day.

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Back at school, everything was relatively normal. And only a handful of students knew that Marinette, Rose, Mylene, and Juleka were involved in the skate fight. But, they didn't bother the four friends anyways. But in many ways, that fight affected Marinette's friendship with the girls.

"Marinette, we're so sorry we left you behind yesterday! We honestly thought that you were right behind us," sobbed Rose. But, Marinette forgave her and all was well…almost. Juleka was kind of a problem. On one hand, Marinette was mad at her for tricking them into participating in a fight. The good news was that Mylene was on her side this time. Her parents weren't happy about the spray paint in her hair. (Although Mylene secretly confessed she might dye her hair multi-colors when she gets to high school). Meanwhile, Rose was quite forgiving and excepted Juleka's mistake yesterday. So now it was turned into a…non-spoken argument topic that nobody wants to bring up. But Marinette gets to solve that problem in the future. Right now, she needed Adrien's forgiveness.

The bell rang and Marinette awkwardly sat down next to her partner. He didn't say anything and ignored her…like the last couple of days. Alya told her about some grand forgiveness plan but right now, Marinette couldn't wait for a perfect time. She was so guilty and he seemed so distant… it was just too much!

"Adrien…," she started.

He hummed in replied. It looks like she was still not forgiven.

"I just want to say…I'm sorry. I should have listened to you, _heck_ ; I was the one who came to you for advice in the first place. I've been a real jerk, but it was sweet of you to send Alya to watch me just in case anyways…," she said. He finally looked at her. She grabbed a box out of her backpack and opened it, "I'm offering macarons as a peace treaty to be friends again."

Adrien looked at her, then the box, and looked back at her again.

He groaned and took a macaron, "Mari! You know that I can't say no to sweets..."

Marinette started laughing at his whining outburst, but she couldn't help it.

"Friends?" Adrien held a macaron to her.

"Friends," she accepted. And for the rest of the day, they were both smiling.

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 **Note- Macarons and macaroons are two different cookies! Sorry, I just hate reading the fan fictions where macaroons are actually macarons!**

 **A macaron (pronounced mack-a-ROHN) is a confection made up of two round, flat, almond-flour-based cookies sandwiching an emulsified filling like ganache or jam.**

 **A macaro** o **n (two** _ **o**_ **s; pronounced mack-a-ROON) is a mounded cookie made with shredded coconut and often dipped in chocolate.**

 **Two very different cookies, two very different appearances, flavors, and recipes—but with remarkably similar names.**

 **Please review, and hopefully this chapter wasn't so bad. Adrienette is coming up…don't worry.**


	4. Chapter 4

It has been a few weeks since the beginning of the school year, and Marinette's relationship with Adrien was starting to shift. So far, she didn't notice that Adrien Agreste was a model. Unfortunately, after being in the industry for a while, he learned that he was going to have to start out on a diet. And Adrien hated it. The only reason Marinette found out was because of lunch detention.

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It was last Tuesday when Chloe started noticing Marinette and Adrien together. Well, she knew they were partners in class but they were awfully friendly with each other. Like they had plenty of personal connections with each other from the past, which she knew they didn't because she was his only childhood friend. So what made them so close? Apparently, from local gossipers, it started after the skate park fight, or whatever that was. Chloe knew that there were _plenty_ of other people that didn't watch the news.

At home, she Googled the fight, but nothing mentioned anything about her Adrikins or Mari- _trash_. She went through different news articles but still found nothing…until she _did_ find one of her classmates that _had_ participated in the fight.

She laughed as she printed out a few papers. "Well well, I guess this little Goth would be my filler on everything," Chloe smirked evilly. All she had to do now was find this Juleka person who somehow went to their elementary school.

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The next day poor Juleka had to face Chloe when everyone wasn't paying attention, of course, otherwise, the plan wouldn't go smoothly.

It wasn't that hard finding the Goth, she was the tallest 5th grader Chloe knew. And who wore dark _tacky_ clothing, it was hideous. And the black lace was _way_ too dramatic. Ugh! No one knew how to dress these days!

As usual, Chloe made Sabrina do all the work. The nerdy girl all too innocently asked the Goth for help with something. It wasn't that hard for Chloe to find out that Juleka was a sweetheart despite her appearance. Sure she had a gang of skaters with her too, but otherwise, the girl was friendly and her intentions were clear that she just wanted to help her brother and protect the things she loves.

 _Like the skate park,_ Chloe mused. Chloe knew desperation when she saw it, and the girl was determined to protect her park and make friends. Funny how being the newbie always make someone feel at their worst. And that was what Chloe liked about new people. They always have the hardest time fitting in and most of them were so manipulative.

Juleka arrived in front of Chloe not a minute off schedule. At first, she looked puzzled until Chloe started smirking.

"Can I help you with something?" the tall girl asked. Chloe snapped her hand and Sabrina came forth handing a newspaper to Juleka.

"Does this look familiar too you?" the brat asked pointing to the section of the article featuring the skate park fight. The Goth quickly examined it before turning a shade of pink, ever so lightly, and handed the paper back to Chloe.

"I'm sorry, but this doesn't have to do with anything. I know my brother and I took part in it, but otherwise, I'm not sure how I could help you. So if you don't need anything else I'm just going to go now," Juleka said turning away. But Sabrina grabbed her wrist to stop her. Chloe sighed. Why did the new people always have to be so incorporative? She guessed that she'll have to do this the hard way.

"Sabrina, show her the other paper," Chloe snapped. And the red-head did. Juleka's heart fell.

"Where did you get this," she whispered so quietly Chloe couldn't hear her, but she knew what she was saying. This was exactly according to plan. Truth was, it took some effort digging dirt on Juleka and her brother's past, but it was worth it for this.

"Listen newbie, you would do exactly what I tell you, otherwise, you'll have no friends left at this school, and you're moving from Bordeaux would all be for nothing," Chloe threatened, delighted at how her victim seemed so helpless, "Otherwise, not only would I release this paper out to all of Paris, but I also have the power to get your brother kicked into some sort of strict private school for certain boys. And to add the final cherry on top, I'll make sure both your parents get unemployed!"

But unlike most of her victims, Juleka didn't cry. She just shook her head lost in thought. Finally, she spoke up, "You must be the mayor's daughter everyone talks about." Chloe nodded, pleased that she had such a large reputation, but the girl continued, "They were right. You are a giant bully."

Chloe gasped. Bully? _Her, the mayor's daughter?_ Clearly, it must have been somewhat else.

"No wonder you're so friendless. I pity you," the girl finally added. Nobody pities the mayor's daughter. Chloe was furious, now she was really going to make sure that her life was miserable.

"Are you going to do what I say or what," Chloe says gesturing to the paper in Sabrina's hands.

Juleka looked angry, but looked down at her feet instead, "I'm not going to bully people like you."

"Ok, have it your way…," Chloe trailed off.

"But," Juleka continued, "I never said I wasn't going to accept your deal." Chloe grinned. They all came around eventually. All of them did.

"So if you're not going to be one of my mindless minions, how can you be useful?" Chloe asked. She was curious after all. Usually, victims who didn't do everything she said word for word got the worst of it (except Marinette, who found a way past Chloe's little system), but Juleka was too useful in this situation to let go. Not when her Adrikins was involved. She couldn't make such a tiny mistake.

"I happen to be friends with the school's biggest gossiper, remember," said Juleka clearly implying that it was Rose, "Being discrete might be the best solution. I'll tell you anything I happen to come across." Chloe considered her proposition.

"Deal".

Chloe turned around and walked away, leaving Juleka behind. Ever so unnoticeably, a single silver teardrop fell from the broken-hearted girl's cheek.

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And so, with Juleka now at Chloe's disposal, this was how the brat was able to get Marinette and Adrien in lunch detention. (Although she didn't mean to drag him down with Marinette, that was where the plan went wrong).

It was just an ordinary Thursday when Marinette just so happened to pick up a fight with Chloe. No, it wasn't Chloe this time, but the ravenette was so use to the routine by now that fighting with anyone other than her arch nemesis was rather unusual. No, this time she managed to pick up a fight with Juleka of all people.

That girl already made it on to Marinette's list of being suspicious and disliked. And that was saying something because the people on that list were…actually; _there were no people on that list_! Chloe was an exception because she already hogged up an entire list of her own. But that was beside the point.

It also stung that Rose took Juleka's side this time. Marinette was so use to Rose and Mylene being on her side (even though they never directly interfered with Chloe bullying her, they were always there for the raven-haired girl after all the drama was done), she has forgotten how much she needed their support.

The fight was silly really. It was over a worthless but pretty crystal charm that Gina Dupain, Marinette's grandma, gave the girl when she was 5 years old. At the time, she was just starting on her travels and got that particular item in a charity auction from Taiwan. Granted, the auction wasn't made to be that expensive with decent objects, so the kind grandmother bought the charm at a cheap price of $7.00.

Marinette smiled when Gina gave it to the young girl. "You are my good luck charm," the old woman told her, "Now whenever you see a ladybug, you can think of me."

The young baker's daughter cradled the charm in her palm gently.

"Thank you, grandma. I hope you think of me whenever you see a ladybug too!"

And the woman did, whenever she was on her travels.

Meanwhile, Marinette took the charm wherever she went. She got into the jewelry making business when she got her first kit on her 6th birthday. It wasn't that hard turning her precious gift into a keychain, which was good for her since she was often surprised that she didn't lose it yet, so the attachable hoop at the end was a great help.

The class was taking a break for snacks before recess. She was in the middle of eating a macaron and having a conversation with Adrien when she first spotted the tall 5th grader. This was why Marinette was more than confused at first when she saw Juleka hanging around her cubby and took the charm off her backpack. The Goth turned around like nothing has happened and started walking to wherever she was going. Marinette gasped in surprise and hurried after her, only to stop her and asked for the charm back.

And did she give it to her? NO! The Goth put on the straightest poker face in the world and said she had no idea what Marinette was talking about, which made the girl only more furious because it was obvious that the charm was hers.

"Oh really? Where did you get it then," Marinette challenged. It wasn't from any shop in Paris that was for sure. And she doubted Juleka actually traveled to Taiwan to get it. Her grandma told her that it was specifically crafted for the auction from a small in-house designer.

Juleka's expression flashed a wave of panic before she said, "I-I got-t it from…Monoprix…" she trailed off.

"Well, that charm looks a lot like mine… The one that is missing from my bag!" the ravenette exclaimed. As further proof, she got her backpack and showed her where her lucky charm has gone missing.

Juleka started to sweat. "Uhm…. Marie Sixtine?" she said, but it sounded more of a question than a statement.

Marinette shook her head. Why try pretending when it's obvious you're going to lose the battle. She was about to speak up when Rose walked in.

The usually quiet girl spoke up. "Marinette, it could be possible that… maybe, you actually lost the charm and Juleka actually has a similar one instead?" Marinette slowly blinked at the best friend.

"I mean," she continued, "I know how your grandmother gave you a ladybug charm when you were five similar to this one, and that it means a lot to you, but I don't think that Juleka would actually do something like that, would you Juleka?" The goth looked down at the pink girl and nodded.

Marinette blinked again and slowly processed everything. Finally, she sputtered out, "B-but I-I…Th-that's not-t…" She was interrupted when a voice came from nowhere and shoved her away from Juleka. She stumbled back from the force put looked up to see that it was none other than Chloe.

"The pathetic pink girl is right, Mari-trash. Leave this poor girl alone for once and back off. It's obvious that you just hate her and want to get her in trouble," she smirked. Marinette was having none of it and scowled at the major's daughter. In a few minutes, both girls ended up in a heated fight and didn't seem to be backing off anytime soon. Soon the argument turned into shouting, which was enough to draw the teacher's attention. She furiously went to the two young girls in demand for an explanation.

"What is the meaning of this?!" Ms. Lupa stated with annoyance. It wasn't that hard to learn that Chloe and Marinette hated each other's guts and often got into petty arguments with the other. To be fair, the teacher wasn't that fond of Chloe herself, not that she could tell anyone. She would have had to be a blind teacher to not notice the thick tension between the baker's daughter and the spoiled rich brat.

As if to answer her question, both girls turned red and faced the teacher.

"She started it!" they pointed to each other at the same time.

The teacher huffed again.

Chloe spoke up first. "My dear sweet teacher…," she started, putting on the best fake sarcastic acting voice of all time, "please allow me to explain. Poor Juleka here was being bullied by Marinette when she started blaming her for taking her charm out of nowhere, which is impossible because I gave her that charm, to begin with." To show her proof she took out her phone and showed her pictures of giving Juleka the charm. It was photoshopped, obviously, not that Ms. Lupa needed to know. And Chloe hired one of Daddy's clients to do the work for her.

The process was quite simple. After school the day before, Chloe took some pictures of the worthless charm from different angles, from far away of course. It was only a matter of borrowing Juleka for different poses and editing the two films together that it looked real. So maybe the process wasn't that easy after all, since all the sneaking around, photos, and editing took forever, but what matter most was that it worked out in Chloe's favor in the end.

The teacher grabbed the phone and looked at the pictures. After a while, she frowned.

"Well Marinette…" she began, "Usually you're not the type of person who fakes things and bullies others over useless arguments, but with proof, I can't go against Chloe," she concluded.

"Don't forget, my Daddy's major! If you say anything otherwise _teacher_ , then my Daddy could easily fire you or whatever for going against me after having all this evidence," Chloe grinned evilly.

Ms. Lupa sighed. Since when was dealing with 5th graders _this_ hard? She turned to Marinette.

"I don't know what caused you to bully Juleka, Marinette, but I would let you know this once that this sort of behavior is not accepted in this classroom," she said. Poor Marinette was on the verge of tears. The argument didn't matter anymore. All she wanted was her good luck charm back. Was that too much to ask? It would be so unfair that Chloe and Juleka got to keep it after it so rightfully belonged to her! And since when did Chloe start to like Juleka anyways? If she heard correctly from a week ago, Chloe told Sabrina something about how lace and goth clothing were super tacky.

"Does anyone else have anything to say on this matter?" the teacher questioned. The class didn't say a word, and all was dead silent.

The teacher knew that Marinette was never this bad. Someone else must have done this with her, or had some sort of influence. Or maybe Chloe sabotaged her, but she couldn't press into the matter any further, especially with the major threat of dealing with her dad still hanging in the air. "Seriously? No one else was part of this act?" she questioned once again.

She received no answer. Ms. Lupa sighed.

"I guess now, Marinette, I have no choice but to give you the punishment of-"

"Wait!" a voice interrupted her, and all the students in the class turned their heads to where the source of the voice came from.

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Adrien didn't know what to do. Where did that voice come from? He would certainly like to be brave enough to stand up for Marinette like that.

A few moments earlier they were talking about homework, and of course, she brought her usual bakery sweets that Adrien desired to eat. All of a sudden, she stopped mid-sentence and turned around to look at the back of the classroom. She blinked slowly and a suspicious expression came across her face. Adrien looked at the direction she was facing, just in time to see Juleka snatch something off of Marinette's backpack.

She glared at the Goth and stood up.

"Be right back," she told him and started speed walking towards the tall girl.

He glanced at the two as he saw their mouths moved up and down, but he wasn't close enough to hear the words. They looked like they were in a middle of a heated discussion when Rose politely interrupted. Then after a while, Chloe joined in. He watched the battle as it grew more intense than ever. Finally, he was able to hear their voices but they were blurred in each other's words. The shouting was enough to gather the attention of his other classmates who went to the back of the room to watch the two girls. At last, the teacher came up to them and broke the two girls apart. The classroom turned dead silent. Slowly, he and a couple of other classmates who didn't already go to watch the fight left their seats. This was going to be interesting.

"-she started blaming her for taking her charm out of nowhere, which is impossible because I gave her that charm to begin with," Chloe's annoying bratty voiced carried over the silence. She took out her phone and gave it to the teacher. Adrien saw Ms. Lupa start to frown before giving Chloe the phone back.

"Well Marinette…" she began, "Usually you're not the type of person who fakes things and bullies others over useless arguments, but with proof, I can't go against Chloe."

 _What?!_ Adrien mentally screamed. The charm was obviously Marinette's and yet, somehow Chloe managed to get away, just as she always had.

He blanked out for a few moments before he heard the teacher speak up again.

"Does anyone else have anything to say on this matter?" The class didn't speak because no one had anything to say, even though they knew that the ladybug charm belonged to the shy ravenette anyways.

She sighed.

"Seriously? No one else was part of this act?" she questioned once again. She was met with the same silence as before.

Ms. Lupa looked around. She finally started to say, "I guess now, Marinette, I have no choice but to give you the punishment of-"

Adrien didn't know why, but he exploded or rather wanted to anyways. This was so unfair! Poor Mari, and from the looks of it, she didn't care about the petty argument anymore, she just wanted her charm back.

Then, the voice came out of nowhere.

"Wait!" someone said.

Adrien blinked. Was it someone besides him? They seemed awfully close to him.

He watched as he saw Alya raise her hand and swiftly walk over to Ms. Lupa. She had a look of determination on her face.

"This girl is innocent! And it's obviously Chloe," the fierce brunette said and pointed to the snobby blonde.

At least, that was what he thought in his head. Back in the present, he saw all of his classmates look over in his direction.

 _Why are they looking at me?_ He thought. He replayed the moment someone said 'wait!' when he realized that _he_ was the one who said it. On top of that, his hand was raised high in the air for everyone to see.

He watched as he saw a bunch of surprised faces in the crowd. Chloe looked the most mortified out of all of them.

Sheepishly, he awkwardly put his hand down and shuffled slowly to where Ms. Lupa was standing.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Mr. Agreste, do you care explaining how you've taken part in this?"

He gulped. Now was the time for the terrible improve that he has seen on T.V.

He quickly scrambled for an excuse, "I- uh, well y-you see," he stopped and took a deep breath, "I was the one who told her about the charm."

He heard a gasp, probably from Marinette.

"You see, I saw the charm in Juleka's hand and I thought that it was Marinette's. I told her to go take it back since she told me she lost hers a few days ago. She was hesitant at first, but I was very persistent. When I finally convinced her, she was arguing with Juleka. But all along, I knew that I stole her charm a few days ago and left it at my house," he lied.

The teacher appeared stunned. Unfortunately, Chloe wasn't having any of it.

"What are you talking about Adrikins! It's obviously only Marinette's fault that all of this happened!" she said in outrage, "I would not let you be responsible for this!"

Ms. Lupa was still in a stupor when Adrien sighed and pulled Chloe aside.

"Chlo, don't lie to me. I know you have her charm," he confronted her.

She blinked and slowly said, "Yeah…but it belongs to Julek-"

"Can I please have the charm," Adrien interrupted and held his hand out. Stunned, Chloe hesitated before she slowly placed the ladybug charm into the palm of his hand.

He nodded, "Thank you," and left to go back to Marinette.

Adrien stopped in front of her. The ravenette's expression was in between a state of surprise and confusion.

He grabbed her hand and placed the charm in her palm before curling her fingers around it, and returning her arm back to her side. Afterward, she started blushing furiously.

Adrien turned to face Ms. Lupa. "Whatever punishment you give her, you have to give to me too," he bravely declared.

After a few seconds, the teacher snapped out of her daze.

"Alright then…Marinette and uhm, Adrien, you both have...," she thought for a moment, "lunch detention tomorrow. You both will have to stay in my room for lunch to clean the desks." Satisfied with the punishment she gave out, she returned to her desk, just as the recess bell rang.

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Marinette was more than surprised when Adrien stood up for her. She couldn't ask for a better partner.

She walked to the benches where she waited for Rose and Mylene…and Juleka. If Marinette had to be honest with herself, the group wasn't really complete anymore. Their friendship dynamic changed since the skate park fight, and Mylene was starting to drift away. Lately, Mylene started hanging out with the guys and Alix, even though the ravenette never paid attention to her until she dyed her hair bubblegum pink. Otherwise, she was always that girl at the back of her mind, doing a bunch of sporty things, in which Marinette never paid attention to.

And since Mylene left her with Rose and Juleka more often than not, Marinette was stuck with the goth. Rose knew that Marinette seemed to dislike her and Mylene seemed to as well, but she wouldn't let go of Juleka much to the baker's daughter's annoyance. The fight today was the last straw. She just couldn't live anymore knowing she wasn't happy with their friendship. She was stuck in a lie, and she hated liars, she realized.

So when Marinette saw them, she didn't even bother with the tiny chit-chat and went straight to the case. She explained to Rose how their friendship wasn't working, and even openly told her (and Juleka who was there too) that she didn't like the Goth. It didn't matter since Juleka didn't seem to like her either. It got harder to break off the ties as she saw Rose getting tears in her eyes.

"Marinette, if it was about the fight earlier today and me not backing you up-" she started.

Marinette cut her off again. "Rose, you obviously knew it was mine anyways. And it wasn't just this time either…"

Rose nodded understanding. Truth be told, she recognized the ladybug charm anywhere. Marinette proudly showed it off to her friends for as long as she knew, and she carried it around with her everywhere. But when Juleka and Marinette started to fight, Juleka looked nervous and Rose knew inside that it did belong to Marinette, but on the surface, she hoped everything would be fine. It was ironic that Rose stood up to her best friend even though she could have done that to Chloe whenever she was fighting the ravenette.

Bad enough that Mylene started cutting off ties, but now she was losing her other friend too.

"I just want to say, even though we'll start hanging out less you still have Juleka, and I'll have whoever. At least I won't be living up to a lie saying I'm happy when I'm not," the bluenette looked Rose straight in the eye and gave her a hug.

She hugged back tightly, knowing that this was the end until another time.

Marinette stepped back and went to face Juleka.

"Truce?" she offered holding her hand up.

The Goth nodded and took it giving it a firm shake, "Truce."

And with that Marinette left and ran towards the play structure.

 _What am I going to do now?_ She asked herself as she left Rose and Juleka. Because right now, Marinette was the definition of best friend- _less_.

She went towards the end of the trees and sat down. It seemed so long ago in 4th grade where she twisted her ankle and fell in this area. Thankfully, Robert transferred schools, so he didn't have to be pushing over anyone anymore.

She smiled fondly at the memory of Supertag before starting to cry, at her loneliness and at the painful memory.

What she didn't hear was the sound of footsteps behind her. The person slowly sat by her side and waited patiently until the waterworks were over.

Marinette looked up from the hands to see Alya sitting next to her. She offered her a weak smile.

"Hey, are you okay?" the brunette asked.

Marinette wanted to nod and tell her everything was fine, but after the long weeks since the park, she knew she couldn't bottle her feelings up anymore. So she told Alya everything. She quickly let it all out as the superhero fan gently patted her on the back.

"Well, it's time for you to find some new friends then," Alya offered.

Marinette smiled, knowing that this was the start of a beautiful friendship. And for the rest of the recess, the two of them spent their time on the edge of the trees telling each other secrets and stories, like they knew each other all their lives.

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Lunch detention was taking place the next day, and neither Marinette nor Adrien were looking forward to it.

That recess, Marinette, and Alya spent their time together again. They joined in on a round of Supertag, and Marinette was having the best time she had in months.

She laughed as Alya got tagged.

"I am…Superfan, and I get to summon any superhero I want! I call on the powers of Majestia and Victory to aid me in my battle for conquest," she declared. The other children laughed and shrieked as they ran away.

"Marinette," she heard Alya say after she ran for a while, "You're frozen. Majestia used her lasso to capture you." So the raven-haired girl had to freeze and watch in horror as her bestie slowly walked to her enjoying her torture as she slowly tagged her.

"No fair!" Marinette said as she released herself from her freezing position, "Majestia is too strong!"

"And that's why we both love her when she's out kicking the baddies butts!" Alya struck Majestia's signature pose. In return, Marinette laughed as she struck Victory's.

But as soon as recess was over, Marinette had to remind Alya she wasn't going to be able to go to eat lunch with her since she was stuck with Ms. Lupa. The brunette frowned but nodded in understanding her situation.

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Lunch detention started out okay. Adrien and Marinette both stayed as they watched their friends and classmates head out to lunch, while they were stuck in the boring old classroom.

Ms. Lupa started easy on them since she knew that they were both good students caught in a bad predicament at the wrong time, with the wrong person (AKA Chloe). She gave them both a spray bottle and cleaning wipes to wipe down the desks.

It went on like that for a few minutes until Ms. Lupa told them to take a break, and left the room to get her own lunch.

Marinette sat down at her desk and Adrien did the same. It was quite awkward since they were both sitting next to each other and yet, neither had a thing today. The tension only increased whenever their elbows accidentally touched and both kids looked at each other before turning red and looking away.

But that was not how the conversation between the two of them started.

After unpacking their lunches, both had something to say about each other's meals.

For lunch, Marinette had a Lyonnaise Salad with Sausage and Walnuts and a box full of multi-flavored macarons. Meanwhile, Adrien had…what was _that_?! Marinette questioned as she paused to look at his drink. It was green and had a couple of chia seeds in it. She expected him to pull out more, but otherwise, that was all he had.

"That's it!?" she exclaimed, while she finally realized what she said and clamped her mouth shut. It really wasn't any of her business to know what Adrien preferred to eat. All Marinette knew was that her Papa would burst out laughing if she asked for the green drink for a meal.

Adrien looked at her and an expression of confusion passed his face. He looked at her, then back at his drink again.

"Oh. This?" he gestured to the drink. Marinette nodded.

"It's not that I want to drink it because actually, it tastes quite awful," he chuckled, "But my mom and father say that I must drink it for my modeling job." He uncapped the lid and took a chug of the juice before making a face.

Marinette's eyes widened. "I knew your dad was a famous fashion designer, but I didn't know you were modeling," she stated as she ate her own lunch. Meanwhile, Adrien was staring at her while she ate, eyeing the food she stuffed into her mouth. Finally, after a bunch of uncomfortable staring, Marinette turned to him and asked, "Do you want some?"

He shook out of his daze and nodded a no before going back to his smoothie. By the time Marinette was done with her lunch, she heard Adrien's stomach rumble.

"Your parents do realize that you have to actually eat, right?" she asked.

He blushed and nodded.

"They know, it's just that they want me to do well in this industry and this is one of the requirements," the model made a face again.

Without thinking, Marinette grabbed a macaron out of the box and shoved it into the boy's mouth. Adrien was startled at first until he tasted the sweet flavors of the French cookie dancing across his tongue.

"These…" he chewed slowly, "are the best things that I have ever tasted." He smiled.

Marinette grinned. "I'm glad to know that someone liked it. That was the peach and honey one. It's a new recipe and I'll be glad to tell Papa that someone liked it, besides me."

She thought a moment before adding, "It's also a thank you present for what you did for me yesterday."

Adrien blushed. Instead of answering he grabbed his bottle and started to drink the juice, hoping to avoid answering the question, instead the flavors came out more horrible than before and he ended up choking wanting to spit it out, but couldn't.

Marinette patted his back while he started coughing.

"Just so you know, sweet things often make non-sweet things less sweet after eating the treat," she exclaimed.

"Dully," *cough*, "noted," *cough*, Adrien said after a while.

When he was done, they both went back to awkward silence again.

It was Adrien who broke the silence.

"I'm glad that you got your charm back," he said casually.

Marinette nodded, "Yeah, me too. It's my good luck charm, and I don't know what I'll do without it."

He slowly started to grow interested, "Where did you buy it from."

She stayed quiet, before saying, "My grandma got it for me at a charity auction in Taiwan. It's one of a kind, and it means a lot to me. Also, thank you for standing up for me from Chloe and Ms. Lupa by the way. It was very sweet." She blushed and looked down.

 _I would do it again in a heartbeat_ , he wanted to say, but he didn't have the nerve to do it. Instead, he let the silence fill up space.

And after a miracle, the two miraculously started talking more and grew more comfortable around each other, like an understanding and type of trust was between them now.

Meanwhile, little did Adrien know, at the back of his mind, a new sweet feeling started filling up his chest, he just didn't acknowledge it or knew what it was yet.

And by the time Ms. Lupa returned they were both on the ground, laughing at something, although looking back, they would both tell you they don't remember at what. All they remember was the feeling of friendship and joy between them.

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 **We're done with this chapter! Hah! You guys all probably thought that Alya was the one standing up for Marinette at first! (But I'm happy for what Adrien did in the end, don't you?)**

' **Monoprix' and 'Marie Sixtine' are actual stores in Paris. Monoprix is more of a Target and Walmart like store.**

 **I wanted to give Majestia a weapon like Wonder Woman's lasso of truth because it seems like Zag really likes using old heroes and turning them into a form of their own.**

 **Juleka doesn't actually hate Marinette. In fact, she really admires her characteristics. It's just that they have gotten off on the wrong hand, and Chloe blackmailing her is getting in the way. What was she blackmailing her with? You'll just have to wait for a few more chapters, it'll be answered. She's not a bad person.**

 **Thanks for reading! Please comment and review, it makes my day!**

 **-BelBel**


	5. Chapter 5

"Attention students! The class elections would be starting this week. Those of you who want to run would have to sign here," Ms. Lupa said as she passed out a clipboard with a sheet of paper on it.

The class grinned excitedly from ear to ear.

"That's right class. There are four positions for the student council. President, Vice, Secretary, and Treasurer. There would be two class representatives coming in from 4th grade. Everyone is allowed to sign up; final votes and speeches would be this Friday!" the teacher happily announced.

Marinette beamed. She always wanted to run for student council. Last year in the fourth grade, she even ran for class rep, but Chloe beat her to it. As the year went on, she heard from a lot of the old 5th graders that the council sucked that year. There was even a code word they used.

"Did you hear about Darco Malfoy? Yeah, I heard that she gave out the idea of Royal Mondays…It's exactly as it sounds. Worshipping that devil and doing all of Draco's dirty work.

Marinette frowned when she heard about this. Wasn't Draco Malfoy that mean antagonist in the Harry Potter series? And most importantly, wasn't that character a guy? Well, it didn't take her that long to find out about the code word, and eventually, everyone else caught on as well. Fortunately, Chloe was too stuck up about herself to even notice.

The funniest part was when the teachers used it.

She remembered last year when Chloe has been particularly bratty that Friday. The students weren't the only one that used the code word now.

"You know what? I think we should take a break from our lesson today," Dr. Macarrão said, slamming her book closed.

Everyone knew that even the teachers got mad at Chloe sometimes too.

Chloe laughed, "Thank goodness, it was getting so bor-"

"Let's talk about Draco Malfoy!" Dr. Macarrão interrupted in a sickly sweet sarcastic voice while glaring at Chloe. She looked at the class.

"After all, the author did such a good job making the characters from the Harry Potter series come to life. I find that you'll see Mr. Malfoy as a great character to relate to Chloe. After all, you could practically be his long lost twin!" She gave her that same smile again.

But the mayor's daughter didn't seem to get that the message was directed to her. Meanwhile, the whole class started snickering.

Marinette shook her head and came back to the present when she heard Chloe's whinny voice.

"-Wait until my father hears about this!" she complained.

Marinette turned to Adrien. "What just happened?" she asked.

"Oh, nothing much. Only that she isn't allowed to run for council".

"What!" she shouted. Did she wake up on a different planet? Chloe usually always got her way! And when she didn't …well…

"I completely agree with Marinette for once," Chloe said overhearing the conversation, "I should be allowed to run!"

The whole class shook their heads. Chloe for president? The only reason they voted her as class rep last year was because she blackmailed most of them, or bribed them with cash.

Luckily Ms. Lupa shook her head. "After learning of your many sabotages and blackmails towards some of your fellow classmates, the school has been keeping a close eye on you. We can't have someone with your behavior running in the election. So let me make this message clear: Anyone besides Chloe can run for student council."

The class cheered.

Marinette and Adrien turned to each other.

"Are you running?" asked the model.

"Why not?" replied the designer. Now that Chloe was out of the picture, it seems like she finally had a chance. Maybe this could be her year! Marinette knew that she always wanted to run for school president ever since she learned that their school had a council. Usually, only the 4th and 5th graders knew about it.

"It'll be fun working with you if we each win. You'll make a great vice president for me," Adrien smiled at her.

"What?" Marinette deadpanned.

Adrien shrugged. "I'm running for president."

The dark-haired girl glared at him. "And what makes you think you'll win right away?" Does he really think that it'll be that easy?

He shrugged again, "I just am."

She never wanted to slap someone so badly in her life. _This means war!_ Marinette thought in her head.

"Just because everything is handed to you on a silver platter, that doesn't mean that you'll get everything you want! Some people have to work for a living!" she scolded him. Just who did he think he was?

He glared right back at her. "That's not what I meant! If I were you, I wouldn't run against me at all! It's obviously a hopeless situation."

The signup clipboard got handed back to their row. There was only one other person running for president, and that was Nathaniel. But he was so quiet; everyone knew that if he was running against people like Marinette and Adrien, it would have been a hopeless situation, which it was.

Marinette signed her name on the president sign up column, and so did Adrien.

"Oh it's on princess!" smirked Adrien. _I got this one in the bag_ , he thought to himself. The recess bell rang as he passed the clipboard back up to the front.

Adrien met up with Nino in their usual spot.

"Hey dude," he greeted as the DJ sat down next to him. They gave each other a fist bump. Ever since that day they met in fourth grade, the two has been inseparable.

Adrien smiled. "Are you running for anything?" he asked. The model hoped not. Running against Marinette was already bad enough; he didn't want his best friend running against him as well. If only that certain blunette wasn't running against him.

He didn't exactly know why he wanted to run. Adrien wasn't really interested himself. But after Marinette turned towards him, she seemed so excited, and it was so cute. And that made him want to work alongside with her. He already pictured it all in his head. She was going to be a cute vice president and she'll get all focused and poke her tong out to the side of her mouth in concentration when discussing ideas. Then they'll both agree to meet outside of class to talk more about council ideas and maybe get ice cream along the way…Woah! Where did that idea come from? It almost sounded as though it was going to be a… _date_? But he didn't like Marinette like that…at least, that's what he kept telling himself.

But then he made that stupid comment and she got all offended…and he couldn't back out of a challenge now could he?

Nino shook his head. "Nah. Besides, what would I run for? Sabrina is running for secretary and Max is going for treasurer. They're both going to get those positions easily. Have you seen Sabrina's writing and Max's skill at math?"

The model nodded understanding his point. "But what about vice president? You could run for that." He suggested.

"I can't man. Alya is running for that position and that girl could be _super_ competitive. I rather just support her from the side," the musician said.

The two started talking about other things until Adrien smiled getting an idea. "Hey, Nino…how do you feel about being my campaign manager…"

The boy thought about it for a while until he nodded, "Sure. I mean what's better than helping my boy and supporting my girl? I mean, Alya!" he quickly added.

Adrien smirked. It seems like his friend had a tiny crush on someone.

Nino blushed. "A-and what about your girl?"

Adrien's eyes widened. "N-no! Not-t t-that way! I-I don't even like Mar-Marinette, she's like a sister to me!"

Now it was Nino's turn to smirk. "I never said anything about Marinette. It could've been any girl." Oh, how the tables have turned.

"But you technically implied it!" he yelled, which made Nino laugh.

After wiping a few tears, he finally managed to say, "Okay, but seriously. Is she running?"

Adrien hesitated for a few seconds. Would Nino support Marinette over him?

"Yeah. She's running against me for president," he said. _No, Nino wasn't that type of friend_ , he decided. And he was right.

Nino made a _tsk-tsk_ noise with his teeth. "That must be tough man. I know that you and Mari have gotten close over the past few weeks."

And it was true. Right now it was the middle of October, and the pair has gotten along quite well. So far, Ms. Lupa didn't change the student's seat yet, and whenever one of the two didn't get something they would always ask the other for help.

"Yeah, whatever. It's no big deal," Adrien said. _Yes, it is,_ he added in his head. So he told Nino the whole story, including his insulting comment.

When he was done, Nino didn't say anything. "Actually, I could see where that dudette is coming from." Adrien nodded and looked down. What did Nino think of him now? He was probably a terrible friend!

"But…" he started, "That doesn't mean that I'll not be your campaign manager anymore."

Adrien's face lit up.

"Let's just hope Alya doesn't hunt you down when she hears about this," Nino added.

Adrien nodded. Alya could be the scariest person he knows. Hopefully, she would be as understanding as Nino… but most likely, she would not.

MLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLB

Adrien was right in a way. Alya was not taking it that well.

As soon as Marinette met up with her at recess, she told her all about what happened after the announcement of the election. She watched as Alya's face flashed a sign of anger as she listened to the blunette speak. She got especially mad about the comment Adrien made.

After she was done the brunette thought for a moment. "Girl, how about this. I'll be your new campaign manager and help you whoop Adrien's butt in the election. No one gets away with talking to my girl like that. I'll show him his place."

Marinette smiled and hugged her best friend.

"Thank you so much, Alya! With you by my side, there is nothing I can't do!"

Alya shrugged. "Anything for my BFF. Besides, I swear all guys are the same; they think they could get away with whatever they want."

Marinette nodded. Beating Adrien couldn't be that hard compared to Chloe…wait, Chloe! She completely forgot about her!

"Wait a minute Alya! There's no way I could win the election! I'm screwed," she shook her best friend as she wailed over her misfortune.

"Girl, what are you talking about?" she asked.

Marinette shook her head violently, "Just my luck that Chloe is Adrien's girlfriend! She'll definitely make sure that Adrien would win now! I'm doomed Alya!"

Alya sighed as she patted the dark-haired girl. "First of all, I don't think that Adrien would ask Chloe to help him at all. Second of all, she's not his girlfriend."

Marinette blinked for a few seconds before a tiny "oh" slipped out.

"It's just that, ever since the beginning of the year, I called Chloe his girlfriend and…well, he never really corrected me since. And how do you know Alya?" she questioned.

Alya shrugged. "Nino is my partner, and he's Adrien's best friend. Of course, I know, Mari." She leaned in, "And between you and me, Nino says that he actually despise her."

Marinette smiled.

Maybe her chances weren't that slim after all.

MLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLB

The moment Adrien got home; he told his parents all about running for the class elections.

"-And no one else is really running against me. Except for Marinette and Nathanial. But honestly, Nathanial isn't really a big competition since he's super quiet and all," Adrien concluded.

His father looked up from his plate, "And the girl?"

His mother looked at him as well.

Adrien thought about it. Actually, Marinette has more of a chance at winning than him. She's been at the school longer than him and everyone knew and liked her. She was just too kind and cute for her own good. Not to mention having Alya there to help with advertising was a good move. And with her parents as bakers, she could easily bribe the class with treats.

"I guess she's decent competition," he finally said.

Gabriel raised an eyebrow. "Decent…so technically you're saying she's _major_ competition."

Adrien nodded. His father cast one look at his mother before scooting his chair back and getting up from his seat.

"Gabriel, where are you going?" questioned his mother.

He walked past her before turning around. "Our son could only have the best of the best advertising. I'm ordering my design team to make posters and buttons for his campaign."

The mother and son shared a look before looking back at the head designer for _Agreste_.

"Is that really necessary, Gabriel? I mean, it's just wasting a bunch of materials and-" began Mrs. Agreste.

He stomped his foot down angrily on the floor. "I'm only allowing the best of the best for our son," he paused before adding, "And I'll make coupons too. Anyone who votes for Adrien Agreste would receive a pair of free sneakers…wait! A free shirt! No, I got it! A shirt, sneakers, and a set of pants-"

Adrien and his mother stopped listening after that.

MLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLB

The next morning when Adrien got to school, he had a bag full of rolled up posters and buttons…and coupons. It was decided last night that any classmate that voted for Adrien would receive a 20% off coupon from _Agreste_ and a pair of sneakers. His mother had to argue that a set of clothes and a pair of shoes were too much.

He got their extra early since he knew that Marinette could be late to school sometimes. That way, he could give out his coupons and buttons and advertise more. Unfortunately for him, this was the one day that the shy, clumsy girl got up early.

Adrien saw 5 posters by the time he reached the front of the school. They were beautifully crafted for such a short amount of time, even if he already had a few himself. But unlike him, she actually created and designed each and every one of them herself.

He groaned when he reached the front steps. Alya and Marinette were there, and they were passing out fresh macarons.

"Vote Marinette for class president!" advertised Alya, who handed a macaron to Nino…Nino! What was he doing? Getting food from the enemy? What kind of campaign manager did that?

To be fair, Adrien could see why. Dupain-Cheng sweets were simply _to die_ for. He heard his own stomach growl in betrayal.

Marinette smirked and looked over in his direction like she actually heard it.

"Hey, Adrien! Care for a macaron?" she shouted over to him. All the students looked his way and giggled. They all knew that he was running against her, and was currently failing poorly.

He blushed as red as a tomato. "No thanks!" he called out. He saw Nino approach him and laughed.

"I don't see what you're laughing at," he mumbled which caused the DJ to laugh harder.

He glared at him, "But that doesn't mean that you could stab me in the back for a bunch of sweets! What kind of a friend does that!" By then, Nino was shaking and finally got to the ground while pounding his fist against the concrete.

When he stopped he looked up to see a hurt Adrien. Nino got off the ground and went to him.

"Sorry dude. But I'm still voting for you at least," he said, but his best bud turned away. Nino sighed, "I swear, I just wanted a macaron. Besides, they're not only campaigning for Mari, but for Alya as well. I got the macaron to show that I support _Alya,_ not Marinette, although I would have if you didn't ask me first. Wait…how about this, I support her, but I'm voting for you instead!" He chuckled and looked at Adrien but he was still ignoring him.

Nino looked down at his macaron and approached him. Adrien shifted and looked at the French cookie, a look of confusion flashed across his face.

Nino grinned. "I got an extra one for you too."

Adrien rolled his eyes but took the cookie. "Fine, I forgive you; only because you actually gave me a cookie. And if you help me put up some posters," he gestured towards his bag. Nino smiled and gave him a thumbs up.

The two friends got to work putting up posters all over the school, but not in the same area as some of Marinette's. One poster caught his eye particularly. It was Marinette in an apron in the kitchen. She had a smudge of flour on her cheek, and his hair was in a messy pun. Underneath her apron, she wore a pastel pink dress, and she was holding out a tray of cupcakes. She looked so genuinely happy that it made his heart melt. Underneath the photo was a caption that read: _Bake_ the decision and choose; Vote for Marinette for class president.

 _Hmm…seems like his princess was into puns_ , Adrien thought to himself. After the last of the posters were up, he and Nino started handing out buttons and coupons on the opposite side of the campus until the bell rang.

When the two partners sat down, the tension was thick between them. When it was snack time, the whole class started to happily chat and relax.

Marinette slid a cookie towards Adrien. He looked at her and hesitantly took the dessert.

"What? Am I not allowed to give my partner a cookie?" she stated.

Adrien shrugged and bit into it. He immediately grabbed a napkin out of his bag and started spitting it out. _What flavor was that?_ It tasted like a bitter rotten egg left in a moldy sock at an old gym locker for a few months. The bitterness was so gross; Adrien knew that if he drank water, it'll only make it worse. Meanwhile, Marinette was shaking with laughter beside him.

"I'm…so..sorry..not," she giggled.

Adrien grumbled, "It's not funny."

"Sorry. That's maror. It's usually a herb used for making horseradish," she smiled.

Adrien grumbled again. Marinette looked at him and felt a little guilty. Horseradish was _definitely_ something she didn't like eating either. So she finally took out a real strawberry macaron from her backpack and wrapped it up into a napkin. She grabbed a sharpie and wrote "Apology macaron" on the napkin and slid it over to him. It took a while before he finally accepted it.

As Marinette thought he finally forgave her, she saw a mischievous glint in his eyes.

She faced him with confusion. What was he was planning to do? Faster than she could blink, he grabbed the Sharpie off her desk and uncapped it, only to draw…on her forehead? She slowly processed everything once he was done.

"Adrien Agreste!" she yelled, while he started smiling.

She looked up, but of course, she wouldn't see it! She took out a napkin but hesitated on wiping up.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, princess. It's a Sharpie, you'll only smudge it," he smirked. Marinette pouted. She probably looks ridiculous!

"At least tell me what you drew!" the ravenette demanded.

Adrien gave her a Cheshire grin. It was so adorable when she pouted.

"It's only a tiny crown. Fit for a princess," he smiled. If only he could take out his phone and snap a picture of her. That would totally be his new screensaver.

Marinette let out a tiny whimper. Now she would be stuck with this mark for the rest of the day! She huffed as she turned away.

Adrien frowned but got another idea. He quickly reached into his bag and got out a button. This design was definitely his favorite. It was of a little kitten playing with a ball that said "Vote!" Around the button, it said, "You're the cat's meow! Vote Adrien Agreste for president!"

He gently placed it on her desk. She took it and looked back at him.

"Seriously? A pun!" she deadpanned.

Adrien smiled. "Yeah, I'd thought you'd like it since your baking poster had one."

Marinette rolled her eyes. "I'm not a big fan of puns. My dad was the one who helped me make it. I was debating whether or not to take it down."

Adrien frowned. Why would she do that for? She looked so cute in that photo. "But I like that one a lot. What's wrong with it?"

His partner facepalmed herself. "Everything! I look ridiculous in that picture, and I hate it, no matter what everyone says," she turned away.

Ridiculous? More like charmingly cute, at least, that's what Adrien thought.

"Actually-y it-t's pretty cute," he shuddered out.

She looked back at him and raised an eyebrow, "Really, chaton?"

"Chaton?" he asked.

She nodded. "Well, you call me princess! It's only fair I give you a nickname too! Besides…you just gave me a button with a cat pun on it."

He smiled. Chaton…that was actually pretty cute.

"Seriously, though. Keep up the poster. I meant every word that I said."

Marinette didn't reply, choosing to look down and continuing to eat her snack instead. He smirked in satisfaction when he saw her turn bright red.

MLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLB

The rest of the week passed by soon enough. And Friday came all too fast. Alya and Marinette practiced rehearsing their speeches the previous afternoon at Marinette's. Alya made an entire speech and planned to memorize it. Meanwhile, Marinette was just going to go with the flow but planned to get out certain topics she wanted to go over. Every time the blunette spoke, the speech was never the same, though it sounded similar and went over several subjects like spirit days, trying to be the best she could be, listening to others, and why her beliefs were important to herself.

Meanwhile, Adrien has gone over his speech with his mother and father. To be fair, it was more of _their_ speech, since they were the ones who kept on changing his words and suggested ways to improve it. He was still grateful, nether the less.

"No, it's supposed to be 'make it _my_ priority', 'not make it _a_ priority'!" Gabriel corrected. Adrien nodded as he continued reading his speech.

"And don't forget to make eye contact!" His mother interrupted towards the end. "You're supposed to speak to the audience, not the paper."

Adrien faked a smile and continued on. They practiced for a couple more hours until it was midnight.

So when it was finally time to say the speeches, everyone was nervous. Earlier in the week, Nathanial dropped out of the race. And so did everyone else who had to run against Sabrina and Max, since they were the obvious shoe in. Alya had a competition going against Aurore, Juleka, and Albert. That left Marinette and Adrien to go against each other. President speeches had to go last.

While Adrien was practicing, Chloe came from out of nowhere and threw her arm around his neck.

"Hey Adrikins!" smiled Chloe. Adrien resisted the urge to roll his eyes and chose to unwrap her arm from his neck instead.

"Hey Chlo," he said as he read his speech. He had to make sure that everything was just right. And if what he heard from Nino was true, then Marinette had a high chance of winning. Nobody really knew why Nathanial pulled out of the race, but Nino, Adrien, and the other boys in their friend group did. He was indirectly helping Marinette get more voters, not that she'll ever know of course. The guys were sworn to secrecy to never tell anyone.

Even though Nathanial was quiet, he had connections to the more quiet people in the grade, along with several artistic classmates. He dropped out to try to convince them to vote for her as president. If Adrien didn't know any better than he'd say that the redhead had a crush on the raven-haired girl. For some reason, even though Adrien wasn't dating Marinette yet, he felt this angry feeling towards the red-head, with another mixed feeling of something else.

Chloe smiled. "You know Adrikins, I could easily help you win the election. All you have to do is say the word." She glanced at Sabrina who gave her the thumbs up.

Adrien wasn't convinced. No way would he cheat against Marinette, he just couldn't do it!

Chloe pouted. "I'll make you a deal..."

 _Of course, she would do that,_ Adrien thought.

"I'll keep Nathanial away from Marinette and-"

"Deal!" he shouted.

Chloe smirked.

 _Wait, did I just…_ he trailed off. He watched as Chloe walked away. _Yup. Yes, you did,_ his brain responded. How could he let jealousy cloud his thoughts? And just a deal to keep Nathanial away from Marinette? Why was he suddenly so protective of her?

The other speeches went by quickly.

The only one he was half listening to was Alya's.

"-And that's why women equality is important. Voting for me is the first step in helping my classmates and school change the world. A little help that's going towards a giant movement. We are all a part of something great if we worked together. Thanks for listening to my speech," Alya stated calmly. The whole class cheered for her the loudest, or maybe that was because Nino was the one cheering the most.

Marinette was before Adrien, and he had to admit that she was pretty good. She went up to the front of the room confidently, and unlike the others, she had no flash cards or binder paper. She was probably the only one out of all the other students running who didn't have something written down and prepared. Yet, she smiled at everyone like everything would be just fine. She looked around the class and her eyes landed on him. For a moment, this made Adrien relax since he was the one that was up next. He almost didn't hear her when she began to speak.

"Hi, I'm Marinette. By now, all of you guys know me as the klutzy baker's daughter. But, I just wanna first say, that I want to be voted in fairly because you believe in me, not because of all the bribes you guys got this week! I'm not gonna make promises that I can't keep, and I'm not gonna be able to get you everything that you want. But I am resourceful and I know how to prioritize. I'm a good listener and a great multi-tasker. I'll try making this a fun school year and I can't wait to help organize spirit days. Representing you all is something I truly believe in. And most importantly, I believe in myself. So... Vote for Marinette, for class president!"

The whole class clapped and cheered louder than for Alya's speech, and that was saying something since the brunette was especially passionate while saying those last words in the end.

When Adrien went up, he was mortified. If he wasn't running, he would probably have voted her as class president…actually, he would have voted for her anyway, even if she had a horrible speech. Except, right now he couldn't since he was the one running against her!

Ms. Lupa nodded as Marinette took her seat. "That was a lovely speech Marinette. Now, last but not least is the one and only Adrien Agreste!"

The class politely clapped as he took the stage. Overall the noise he heard four voices.

"That's my best bud! Knock it out of the park, dude!"

"You go, boy! Just make sure you don't beat my girl in the race!"

"Adrikins! You'll obviously win!"

"Good luck, Adrien!"

The model smiled when he heard the last voice, which belonged to Marinette. And that's when everything fell apart. First, he forgot his speech. I mean, what kind of idiot would forget his speech on one of the most important days of their 5th grade! Adrien Agreste, that's who. Second of all, the moment he got to the front of the class and faced the audience, he froze. Sure he was okay when doing all the photoshoots and everything, but that was because someone was actually directing him to do things! But right now, this was _his_ speech directed to _his_ classmates!

In a panic, he scanned the crowd. Looking at them only made it worse, even looking at Nino and Alya didn't make him feel better.

They were both smiling until a few seconds passed and he still hasn't delivered his speech. The two looked at each other before giving him a look of concerned.

God, they must think that he was so weird right now! He looked somewhere else since he didn't want to see the disappointed look from his two friends. His gaze just so happens to land on Marinette.

She had a look of concern on her face too. She tilted her head before mouthing something that looked like, "Are you okay?"

He didn't know how he knew what she was saying since she was at the back of the classroom, but somehow he just did.

The model politely nodded a no and nudged his head towards his desk a few times. The blunette's eyes widened as she saw the piece of binder paper on the desk. She carefully took it and did a quick scan through. He saw her gasp as she looked back at him.

"Your speech?" she mouthed. Adrien nodded. Marinette looked down at the binder paper. Then, after a few seconds, she motioned her index finger between herself and him. Then, she pointed back at the binder paper.

After realizing what she asked, Adrien violently shook a "no" in the most non-obvious way he could muster. He would look like a fool if she came up to give him his speech now!

"What do I do?" he mouthed. He wasn't sure if Marinette got the message, but she did. She immediately set the piece of paper down.

She took a deep breath and let it out. "Out and in," she directed. And so, Adrien did what she instructed while trying not to panic; he was still in the front of the class, after all. After they did three rounds she stopped him. The designer pointed at him, then did a semi chicken wing flap while mouthing "wing it!"

Adrien's eyes widened. He definitely didn't practice any winging it with his parents last night! If only they could see him now; they would be so disappointed!

"I can't!" he mouthed.

Marinette shook her head. All time seemed to stop as she looked him in the eyes. They were the most clearest shade of blue that he ever saw.

She shaped her fingers into the shape of a heart and placed it over her chest. "I believe in you," she smiled. And that was all Adrien needed to start talking.

Adrien couldn't exactly recall what he was saying at the time, but he knew he wasn't as stressed or tense as when he was practicing with his parents. He even cracked a few puns. And with no script to follow, making eye contact with people was a breeze. (Although he would never admit to everyone that he was mostly looking at Marinette.)

And every time he did, she would always be giving him a thumbs up, or flash her pearly whites at him. That was the thing that kept him calm the whole time. When he was done, the whole class was cheering; but he was only looking at the young designer. She was grinning while cheering loudly, which seemed to annoy some classmates around her area, but that made her smile more, which made Adrien smile more.

When the applause was done, and Adrien sat back down, Ms. Lupa got up from her seat and started to pass papers back to the class.

"Now remember, this is the election paper. Check the box next to the person you wish to vote for. You can't vote for two of the same people running for the same position, otherwise, your vote will not be counted, for-Chloe Bourgeois! What are you doing?!"

The whole class turned their heads to see Chloe passing out wads of cash to people around her area. _So that's what she was going to do_ , Adrien thought. She was going to bribe them, not that he cared about winning anymore.

"Uh-I! Adrikins help me!" she wailed. Adrien rolled his eyes, but went to her side anyway, trying to calm the poor girl down. Luckily it was towards the end of the school. The bell rang as students passed their voting papers forwards.

Adrien frowned. He'd better hurry up on his voting! He picked up his pencil until he felt a vibration coming from his phone in his pocket. Since it was now officially after school, Adrien was allowed to take it out without getting in trouble. The vibration came from his reminders that he had a photo shoot in… _5 minutes!_

Adrien silently cursed as he packed his stuff away and ran out the door.

MLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLB

The next day at school, everyone was excited about who would win.

"I'm pretty sure that you got this, Alya!" Marinette cheered as the first bell rang. The superhero fan smiled.

"Thanks. I would say you too…but Adrien got me beat with his speech. Don't get me wrong, I still voted for you! But, I'm pretty sure that other people voted for him too," she stated.

Marinette nodded in agreement. This class election was definitely more fun than last year when she ran for class rep; especially since Adrien made things more exciting, even if they were opponents.

The ravenette truly felt sorry for the model when he was up on stage. But she would feel that way with anyone who was in his position at the time. The most surprising thing was when he looked at her for help. She honestly thought that he might want to confront Nino with this since he was his best friend, but he chose her instead.

So naturally, she tried helping him to the best of her abilities. Thankfully it worked, and by the end of his speech, even she was captivated by how passionate he sounded and how he cared for the school.

Even if she didn't win, Marinette was happy that Adrien was the other option. She couldn't have asked for a better partner/friend!

But this morning was quite different from yesterday. Instead of writing the agenda up on the board, Ms. Cacciatore's class came in and sat down on the extra chairs or on the floor.

The two teachers stood in the front of the room.

"As you all know, the student election happened yesterday. Ms. C and I are happy to say we know who would be your student councilmen…and women," Ms. Lupa smiled.

The students clapped politely, but inside they were all dying to know who the winners were.

Ms. C gave a tiny smirk to the students. "But first, let us tell you guys who would be the 4th-grade class reps!"

The students groaned internally but kept silent. No one really cared about them at the moment, compared to the results of their own run.

"And the students are: Sequoia Sayle and Parker Mathews!" announced Ms. Lupa. The class clapped more, but not that enthusiastically.

The teachers looked at each other before laughing, like they were sharing some sort of inside joke.

"We're just kidding. But those two are our actual class reps. But you guys don't want to hear about that do you?" smiled Ms. C. The class nodded. Finally, the good stuff!

"Student secretary is… Sabrina Raincomprix!"

The class cheered, but it was already obvious that it was her.

"The student treasurer:…Max Kanté!"

More claps came from the students.

"Your new Vice president is….Alya Césaire!"

The students cheered, but mainly Marinette, Nino, and Adrien were cheering since they were her best friends. When the clapping stopped everyone grew silent. This was the moment…the final vote between Adrien and Marinette. The class waited for the teachers to continue since they grew silent and serious all of a sudden.

"And your student body president is…a tie!" Ms. Lupa declared.

Whispers started among the students. Sure, they all liked the two friends, but finding out who the winner is was the most important. Meanwhile, Adrien and Marinette were beaming at each other.

"I guess we'll be partners," Adrien grinned.

"Yeah," the blunette agreed.

The two teachers cleared their throats to get the class' attention.

"One of you guys…didn't vote."

The students started to whisper again. Who wouldn't vote? Were they trying to do this on purpose? Well, all their questions would be answered soon enough.

"May that person step forward, please," Ms. Lupa said while half of the dishonest kids stepped up, eager to choose who their president would be. But unfortunately for them, the teachers already knew who didn't do it.

Ms. Lupa looked directly at Adrien. "Mr. Agreste…" she began. All the students turned in their seats to look at him.

The petite teacher calmly approached him. She gave him the voting paper that he left on his desk yesterday when he had to rush to the photoshoot. Luckily, he wasn't late.

"You left this on your desk yesterday," she stated.

Adrien looked at Marinette who made a tiny "oh" form with her lips. She looked away knowing who lost already. All her hard work was for nothing. She was happy for her friend of course, and she already prepared herself for the disappointment if she lost. But after the teacher's announcement of a tie…well, you couldn't stop her from getting her hopes up now, could you? She kept this all to herself as Adrien voted on his choice for president. When he was done, he handed his paper back up to his teacher, who scanned over his choice and let out a small chuckle.

"Well, I guess we have our new president."

Marinette finally looked up at Adrien, who offered her a shy smile.

"Congrats on the win, Agreste," she held out her hand in a sign of a truce.

The boy's smile widened, "Yeah, actually I-" he got interrupted by the teacher.

"And the winner is Marinette Dupain-Cheng!"

Half of Adrien's cheering fangirls stopped in mid-celebration. What just happened?

Meanwhile, the so-called president eyes widened, a grin creeping up on her face. She let out one of the most loudest sequels the class had ever heard as she jumped out of her seat and twirled around. She just couldn't believe it! This was the happiest day of her life! She couldn't believe that she won-. She stopped dead in her tracks.

Marinette marched back to Adrien Agreste with one word at the tip of her tong.

"Why?" she asked.

The model shrugged. "It's not really a big deal if I get it. And you seemed super passionate and devoted to winning. Sure getting the position would be nice, but with my modeling career and my photoshoots…what I'm saying is, I'm glad that you won Marinette. I couldn't have asked her someone better."

The ravenette was at a loss for words. Instead of replying, the girl chose to hug him instead. At first, he seemed surprised but hugged her back. She smiled as she mumbled a thousand "thank yous" into his shoulder.

When she finally calmed down, Adrien leaned over to whisper something else into her ear; something the class couldn't hear since this was just for her.

"Besides princess, you look super cute when you're happy. You should teach me how to dance sometime."

Marinette blushed and looked away, much to Adrien's satisfaction.

Eventually, Nino and Alya came to congratulate the new student president as well.

Alya hugged the girl and started fangirling over how they would make a great team together.

Nino patted her on the back and congratulated her as well.

"Good job dudette," then the DJ turned to his friend, "Better luck next time, bro".

Adrien smiled at this. "Hey, I'm the one who had the final say in this!" he fake whined.

"So?" Nino replied mischievously. The two started chasing the other around as the other two girls started laughing.

"Seriously, girl! If I didn't know him any better than I'd say that he has a crush on you…wait! I do know him that well! He's totally got it bad for you Mari!" Alya teased.

Marinette shook her head. "Not-t like t-that Alya! H-he's just a friend!"

But the brunette didn't let it go until the other two guys appeared again.

"Hey, I know!" Marinette smiled getting an idea, "How about all three of you guys come to my house after school? You know, in celebration?"

The three friends cheered as Nino and Alya replied a quick and immediate "Yes!"

Adrien, on the other hand, had to call his parents, but in the end, they allowed him to go too.

So as the three friends headed to the bakery afterschool Adrien realized two things:

The Dupain-Cheng treats are amazing! (Not that he already didn't know that)

He had a crush on Marinette, and it didn't look like that feeling was going to fade away anytime soon…

MLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLB

 **Phew! And we're done!**

 **First, Happy Birthday Joliza! Even though it's super late and you might read this during next week or something.**

 **Second, this was based on my actual student election in the 5** **th** **grade. (PS I won…over this other guy by one vote or two.) Yep, I was the school's president. Well, actually I was the school's first** _ **girl**_ **president as well. Girl power! Am I right?**

 **Third, Draco Malfoy is from the Harry Potter series. Even though I'm pretty sure I made that clear earlier…**

 **Fourth, Maror is an actual bitter herb, usually found in horseradish. (I'm not a huge fan of it myself. I felt sorry for Adrien when I wrote about the bitter cookie scene** **).**

 **Hope you guys liked this chapter. Don't forget to review and like. Going to sleep now…**

 **-BelBel**


	6. Chapter 6

**Sorry I haven't been posting as much as I would like to. I just have a bit of writer's block. I have no inspiration what so ever right now. So this is a kinda filler chapter. Someone, please help me get more ideas!**

 **But I'm in a good mood. You guys don't know how much I was dying to get the last chapter out, so glad you guys like reading this story so far.**

 **Special thanks to Guest, who posted an** _ **EXTRA**_ **long review! That literally just made my week! (P.S. I starred it in my email.)**

 **Another thank you to** **mayuralover, I've been meaning to say that for a while now, but I just keep on forgetting…**

" **But when are you going to get past the 5** **th** **grade part, BelBel?"**

 **Uhm…honestly don't know. It's called "From the Moment We Met in 5** **th** **grade" for a reason. Maybe till after chapter 10, at least?**

 **Really want to write a scene where Nathanial tries to make a move on Marinette. Jealous Adrien, but in 5th-grade form. And you know how 5** **th** **graders are…**

 **Enjoy!**

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The bell of the warm bakery jingled a merry ring as the quartet made their way through the front doors. The four friends were laughing at something Adrien said, who had a pout on his face, which caused them to laugh even more.

"Hey, it's true!" he insisted.

The three friends snickered. "Sure dude, sure," Nino rolled his eyes. The model grumbled while Alya playfully jabbed him in the ribs.

"Only you like anime, sunshine boy! It's ridiculous how anyone could love a fictional character!" she smirked more.

Adrien held up his hands in defeat. "Well, it's true! Ami Mizuno…I mean Sailor Mercury, is totally cute!"

The trio interrupted in giggles again.

Marinette laughed. "After learning about your love for anime, I for sure thought that you would be crushing on Sailor Moon, or Sailor Venus. At least now I know what to get you for your birthday!"

Adrien began protesting again, to no avail. What Marinette said was true; he did use to crush on Sailor Moon before until he started to realize how similar Ami looked like to Marinette. Both were smart and studious students. Plus, they both had short blue-black hair. Not that he'll ever admit to anyone that that was the reason that he liked Sailor Mercury in the first place.

Not a moment later, Tom Dupain stuck his head out of the kitchen and smiled at the young 5th graders.

Marinette rushed over towards him and planted a kiss on his cheek. "I'm home, Papa!" The large man grinned as he ruffled her hair. Sabine came out a second later, and their daughter did the same thing she did to her father. She kissed the petite mother on her cheek as well. "Mom, I'm home!"

Adrien smiled. Everyone in his grade didn't act this affectionate towards their parents, especially if other classmates were near. Yet, Marinette didn't seem to mind as her mother started commenting on how tall she had grown; even though she only saw her this morning.

It was true that Marinette was catching up to her mother, but that didn't stop her from trying harder to catch up.

Sabine smiled seeing the other 5th graders. "Hello, dears," she said looking at the others, "Are who are they?" she smiled and looked at her daughter waiting for an answer.

It wasn't the first time Marinette brought guests, but that was usually because she wanted to play dress up with Rose and Mylene. And on other occasions, classmates only came when they had to work on a group project or something school related.

So it was somewhat a surprise to see other people over, but she liked them nether the less. Of course, the only person that Sabine met before was Nino, but that was only for last year's science project.

Marinette grinned proudly at her mother before introducing her three friends. "Mom, this is Alya and Adrien. And I hope you remember Nino; we worked together for last year's science project, remember?"

Sabine nodded. "Of course. It's always a pleasure meeting a couple of friends of our daughter."

Tom, who was eavesdropping started laughing as well.

"I swear by next week that you'll be an inch taller than me," Sabine commented as she brought up the subject of height again. Even though she was smiling, Adrien could tell that there was a hint of sorrow in her eyes. But Marinette didn't notice and commented a happy "yes!"

But then again, not many elementary schoolers fully appreciated the fact that they were still young. Most wanted to grow up super fast.

"Hey!" Marinette called to her friends, interrupting Adrien's thoughts. "Let's go to my room!"

The others happily followed. The young model has never been to his classmate's room before, but it was definitely much smaller than his. Although, he was a little jealous of the second floor and balcony that she had.

 _Just like a princess,_ he thought to himself _._

He looked around the room and saw a poster with his dad on it. Adrien had to admit; he was still quite new to the fashion industry but it was really weird seeing _his_ classmate with a picture of _his_ dad, no less.

"Umm…" he commented pointing to the poster. Marinette quickly looked in the direction he was pointing in and starting to blush a tomato red. She hurriedly went to take it down as quickly as possible.

When she was done, she mumbled something that he could luckily make out. "Fashion designer industry…so dumb…Adrien…thinks…idiotic…stalker."

Adrien let out a tiny snicker, letting the ravenette know that he heard her. She squeaked again and turned away.

Eventually, after the tour of the upstairs living area, the four friends made their way downstairs to the bakery. The moment they entered the bakery the smell of buttery croissants and aroma of sweets greeted the quartet. Marinette happily gave them a tour of the place, even to the kitchen in the back where only employees were allowed. For some reason, that made Adrien and the others feel special because what 5th grader didn't when given special privileges?

"-and finally that's the area where there's a machine to help us roll out the fondant. Any questions?" the ravenette asked.

Nino raised his hand. "Can we get some snacks now?"

Tom and Sabine, who were eavesdropping on the kids started to burst out laughing! Nino just grinned sheepishly and started to blush a tomato shade of red.

"Well, could you blame me?" he asked. His stomach growled a minute later which proved his point as the others started snickering as well.

Marinette rolled her eyes. "This is just like that time you came over for the science project last year."

Adrien smiled, but since this was the second time that the science project was mentioned, he couldn't help but be a little bit curious about it.

"What happened when Nino came over last year?" the blond model asked. Marinette grinned evilly just as Nino started blushing and looked down at the floor like it was the most interesting thing in the world at the moment.

Tom interrupted again. "Well, how could anyone forget about that incident when a boy like Nino comes over for a project and almost blows up our kitchen," the giant man laughed.

Alya's and Adrien's eyes widened.

"You almost blew up their kitchen?" they asked in sync.

Nino grew embarrassed once again, but nods.

Marinette was glad to contribute to the story from there. "Well, it was just my luck that I was paired with Nino for the science fair last year that one fateful day…"

Nino groaned, but the blunette continued on.

"Of course we needed to have a certain project. But Nino wanted to make a volcano, only to find out that we both didn't have the right materials. That is until we found a way to make an edible erupting volcano online."

"Hey! It was your idea to do it after reading the recipe!" Nino interrupted.

"It was your fault when you searched for alternatives and clicked on the link, saying that baking wasn't too hard after reading the description on the website!" the ravenette easily countered back.

Nino grumbled.

"Anyways…" Marinette continued, "Turns out Mr. you-know-who here added to much strawberry sauce, which resulted in the strawberry purée getting splashed onto everything in the kitchen!"

Everyone started laughing at this, as Tom added, "You should have seen his face when Sabine and I came in. Those two got in trouble immediately and had to clean the entire kitchen. It was especially hilarious when Mrs. Lahiffe came to pick up her son, only to find him covered head to toe in the fruit syrup!"

Nino pulled down on his cap and murmured, "She didn't let me eat strawberries for weeks after that incident." And somehow, this made everyone laugh more. A while later, Nino's stomach growled again.

Sabine smiled and handed him an éclair a while later, "You could try as many samples as you like. This éclair is actually a new treat, filled with strawberry custard. Usually, Marinette gets to be the first taste tester, so if I were you, I better eat it before she chases you down." She handed him the heavenly dessert, but she was right, as mothers usually were.

"Mama! Did you just give Nino my strawberry éclair!" she glared at the DJ.

He gulped loudly. He didn't even get to have a bite yet.

The blunette started smirking all of a sudden; Nino swore he could see the gears in that girl's brain working.

"I'll give you 10 seconds, Lahiffe," she smirked.

Nino looked over at Alya. "She isn't actually gonna-"

"10".

"She is," Alya grinned cheekily.

"9".

Nino huffed. "She's bluffing!

"8".

"7".

"Nope," Alya replied.

"6".

"5".

Nino was still frozen, not moving from his place.

"4".

"3-"!

Alya looked over at the DJ still doing nothing. Finally, she blurted out, "For goodness sake Nino, that girl is going to hunt you down like a hyena! Run!"

"2-"

And as if finally coming to his senses, Nino bolted and ran upstairs. The three friends watched in amusement as they saw Nino trip over a couple of stairs while trying to move up to the next floor.

"1," Marinette finished counting. She immediately started to run up the stairs, making sure that her footsteps echoed across the walls making it clear that she was going after the poor boy.

After a few seconds, Alya and Adrien grew puzzled as they saw her quietly make her way back to them.

"What?" she asked.

When nobody answered she sighed.

"No one actually believed that I was going to go after him right? Not after he obviously tripped over the stairs and dropped the pastry on the floor, and picked it back up again," she stated.

When the two stayed silent again, she smiled and turned around to open up a small cabinet. From there, she took out a tray of the exact same pastries that Sabine gave Nino.

Marinette smiled, "I actually already know where Mom and Papa keep the new treats. Let's go eat these before Nino realizes that I'm not actually going to hunt him down."

Only later did Nino come down, long after the three friends finished their strawberry custard éclairs in peace.

The three friends teased him for a bit before Adrien got a call that the Gorilla was going to pick him up soon at school.

 _Oops,_ Adrien thought after realizing that he skipped one of his Chinese lessons, choosing to hang out at Marinette's instead.

It was honestly quite dark outside, despite it being 5:00 pm. And the cloudy skies were doing a great job to cast a shadow over the city, making it darker than it really was.

 _Oh, well. If I run, I could probably make it to school,_ Adrien reasoned with himself.

He said goodbye to his friends and ran out of the bakery, in attempt to make it to school, even though it was a block away. If only the elementary school was closer to the bakery.

Along the way, it started to drizzle, only taking a few minutes when the drizzle became a heavy shower.

Realizing that he couldn't go to school in this weather, he turned back, only to find that Marinette was a few meters behind him with an umbrella. Adrien smiled when he realized how cute she looked when her hair was wet.

Sighing in relief he started running towards her until – _BANG!_

Adrien jumped back as a streak of lighting landed an inch in front of his face. Yes, _an inch!_ Terrified, Adrien screamed, closed his eyes, and covered his head with his arms, even though he knew it was over until he felt no rain upon him. He opened his eyes and saw that Marinette was holding one of those clear umbrellas on top of him.

"Are you okay Adrien? Wait, of course you're not! That streak of lightning must have been really awful and t-terrifying. I was even terrified, but you were closer! I-I mean, it's not like you got hurt, but it could've been super bad! Wait! -are you hurt?" Marinette rambled on.

Adrien was only half paying attention. He was terrified of that experience like Marinette said, but she didn't know that he already had a fear of thunderstorms before. Sure, the noise was pretty loud and scary, but this experience was something that was going to scar him for the rest of his life!

He shivered as they finally made it back to the bakery. Adrien has never been so glad to see his classmate's house in his life!

Immediately, Sabine and Tom brought him towels and escorted him into the kitchen where he sat by the ovens to warm up. Marinette made hot chocolate in the meantime.

Adrien looked around the room to find that Nino and Alya were still there. They waved at him before Tom appeared again, bringing a radio with him.

Nadja Chamack's voice immediately came over the speaker. "The storm is going to last all night in the cities of Paris, Versailles, and Saint-Denis. Because of this, all schools in these cities would close the following day. Yes, that's right, _all schools,_ on behalf of the mayor's orders. Lighting and thunder are expected. It's unlikely that it would hail. A power outage might be expected soon and-"

The radio stopped. Sabine sighed and mumbled something about how she should've changed the batteries on that thing earlier.

Meanwhile, Alya, Nino, and Adrien got on their phones to tell their parents where they were. Nino and Alya's parents couldn't really pick them up at the moment, so Sabine and Tom got on the phone with them.

Alya and Nino excitedly whispered to each other.

"I really hope that I'll get to sleep over! I haven't had a sleepover in like…forever!" Alya happily grinned.

Nino shook his head in agreement. "I know. If we do get to sleepover, it would be especially great for Adrien since he never had one before."

Alya smirked evilly. "You're right, Lahiffe. We'll make sure that he has the best night of his life".

In the end, it turned out that Alya and Nino were going to indeed sleepover at the bakery.

They chattered excitedly as they went over to tell the good news to Marinette.

Alya realized something and halted in her tracks, a mischievous smile now on her face. "Lahiffe now's the time to put our plan into action." Nino laughed as they raced forward to the ravenette, no doubt that she'll join in with their plans.

And Adrien…well, let's just say that his father was furious.

"Adrien! This is unacceptable! Tell me why you decided to go to your classmate's house instead of staying put at school?" Gabriel demanded.

"Sheesh, Gabe. Try to calm down," Adrien heard his mother who was on speaker mode. "Would you rather him be at school? During a thunderstorm? He seems to trust him classmate and I find that staying at their house is much safer than being at school right now."

Gabriel grumbled. "Adrien, get me on the line with your classmate's parents, now!"

So Adrien handed Mrs. Cheng the phone as she explained to them that Alya and Nino were two of Adrien's classmates that were staying over as well. The model was surprised to hear how much his father trusted Sabine but was happy to hear that he was going to sleep over as well.

"Thank you, mother and father!" Adrien smiled once he got his phone back.

"You're welcome sweetie, have fun!" Mrs. Agreste said happily as her husband replied at the exact same time, "Don't have too much fun, and sleep at your usual bedtime."

Adrien could already see his mother glaring at his father through the phone.

"Ignore your mother/father," they both said together. Eventually, they started to fight on the other end of the phone.

"Justknowthatweloveyou! Bye!" his mother finished quickly as she hung up, as she started to argue with her husband some more.

Adrien decided not to question things and went upstairs to Marinette's room while finishing the last of his hot chocolate. What he saw made him choke on the warm cocoa as he eyed what's happening before disaster was struck-.

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 **That's a wrap! Hope you like this filler! And for the cliffhanger…. ;)**

 **To be fair, it's 4:15 AM in the morning. Night! Please review and share some future chapter ideas! Thanks!**

 **-BelBel**


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